[lg policy] New Brunswick: Language policy needed to cover social media use

[Harold Schiffman]

Language policy needed to cover social media use

The New Brunswick government should issue clear guidelines on how
politicians and public agencies communicate on social media forums,
according to a new report from the official languages commissioner.
Michel Carrier issued his annual report on Thursday that included
several investigations into language complaints levelled at the
provincial government and many of his own recommendations on
strengthening the provision of services. Carrier said in his report
that several organizations asked whether the Official Languages Act
applied to social media.

"In the commissioner’s view, these inquiries clearly demonstrate the
need to establish guidelines for public agencies in this regard," the
report said. "Furthermore, he has recommended this to the premier."
Carrier said specific rules need to be established regarding how the
language law applies to:

    The use of bilingual public forums and unilingual forums
    The use of personal accounts, such as Twitter, by government
employees and the resulting linguistic obligations
    The use of third parties in the management or moderation of
government public forums

Only a handful of the 55 New Brunswick MLAs are active users of the
micro-blogging service Twitter. Most of the Twitter messages are in
English, however, some bilingual MLAs will send out messages in both
official languages. Premier David Alward has an official Twitter
account in English and French. So messages, for instance, sent from
the French account — @CabinetPM_NB — are sent only in French.

The provincial government's recently formed natural gas group has
recently set up accounts in both languages — @NBGroupeGazNat and
@NBNatGasGroup.

A similar tactic was also used by the province's energy commission. In
the commission's final report, it described some of the problems of
using social media in the context of a government commission.

The report, which was led by Jeannot Volpé, a former Tory finance
minister and Bill Thompson, a former deputy minister of energy, cited
concerns with how public servants interacted with the public and not
specifically about the language the messages were sent in.

"Social media are difficult for governmental organizations to use and
execute. Full participatory use of this method involves giving up a
certain amount of control over information flow and input that is
publicly visible," the energy report said.

"While this method promotes greater transparency, risks occur in the
potential spread of misinformation or negative portrayal of official
activities. Humour, informality and personal hosting attachment to
public sector organizations can all present challenges to the way that
governments operate due to public scrutiny."
Progress being made

Carrier said in his annual report that there was progress being made
on the delivery of public services in both official languages.

But the title of his report, "Move Forward or Lose Ground," offered a
sense of Carrier's overall tone throughout the document.

The Official Languages Act is set to be reviewed in the next year by
the legislative assembly. The former Bernard Lord government brought
in a new law in 2002 and made it mandatory to review the law in 10
years.

"New Brunswick has made remarkable progress in official languages over
the past few decades. However, the government must not rest on its
laurels," Carrier's report said.

"All of this progress is fragile because we must not forget, there is
that general trend of the predominance of English. We therefore have
to continue moving forward or lose ground."

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/story/2011/10/20/nb-carrier-official-languages-1138.html

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