Durham College (DC) journalism graduate, Mickey Djuric, has received an overwhelming amount of support following her politically-charged decision to resign from her position with the Moose Jaw Times-Herald newspaper in Saskatchewan. Djuric stepped down after management made the decision not to publish her video where local Conservative MP Tom Lukiwski gave a speech on the night of the federal election, in which he allegedly called an NDP candidate ‘an NDP whore’.
“When I made this decision I received a ton of support, a ton of emails from people in the community,” said Djuric. “People come up to me in the grocery store and thank me for what I did. That means a lot to me that I did this community proud.”
Djuric covered the Oct. 19 election for the Times-Herald for Moose Jaw-Lake Centre-Lanigan, a new riding in the area. While at the election, Djuric was videotaping, recording and live-tweeting and when the alleged ‘NDP whore’ comment came up, she was distracted and didn’t take much note of it.
Following the election, Djuric went on vacation for two weeks. Once she returned to work, she prepared the video for publishing so the community could meet their new MP. She began editing the video and had the sound running in the background.
“When the part came up in the video where he said ‘NDP whore’ I gasped and remembered back to when I heard him say that on election night,” said Djuric.
Djuric asked a few people to listen to the video and after them unanimously confirming what she had heard, she brought the story to her managing editor.
“I said, ‘I’m hearing whore, but the public is really going to be the jury on this because they’re who holds us accountable and we have to give them the opportunity. We can’t just control their opinions by us silencing [the video],’” said Djuric.
After sending the video to Lukiwski and him claiming he had said ‘horde’, not ‘whore’, Times-Herald management made the decision to hold the video. Djuric then approached upper management and after being told the story would never run, it was the last straw for her and she made the decision to resign from the Times-Herald.
“I realized then that TC [Media] is not interested in keeping the community informed,” said Djuric.
An editorial published on the Times-Herald website says, “the reporter involved was told that our investigation would remain open pending other information she could gather, including witnesses who may come forward. That was where the matter was left. It was not killed and there was no censorship. There was a potential story, but one that needed more information before we were comfortable moving forward with it.”
According to Djuric, it is well known throughout the community that the Times-Herald has a culture of not publishing things that will offend and on Djuric’s end, this meant many important story ideas turned down.
Although Djuric says she plans to come back home to Toronto in the next coming weeks, she preferred not to comment on whether she has received offers for future positions.
