August 1, 2025 – for immediate release

The National NewsMedia Council considered and found that corrective action was taken to address a complaint about accuracy in an April 9, 2025, article published by the Cowichan Valley Citizen.

The article reported about how a father had hired private investigators to help locate his son who had been missing for nearly a year.

Jolene Johnson filed a complaint stating that an individual described as a “licenced investigator” was not, in fact, licensed in the province of British Columbia. The complainant, who noted that she works for a licensed private investigations agency, raised concern about the impact of reporting about individuals described as ‘licensed’ when they are not. The complainant stated that such reports may falsely offer a “sense of security to the public that the investigators mentioned are trustworthy.”

The news organization responded by stating that they conducted a careful review and confirmed that all information contained in the article was accurate and verified to the best of their abilities. The news organization noted that they reconfirmed the individual’s active licence with the Public Safety and Emergency Services of Alberta.

The complainant noted that each province has its own licensing system and that the individual and organization identified in the article did not hold valid licences in B.C. The complainant raised concern with the impact of operating without a licence on public safety and on the reputation of the profession as a whole.

The news organization noted that it would update the story to clarify for readers that the individual was licensed in Alberta.

In response to the complainant’s other concerns about the practices of the investigator in the article, and their associated organization, the news organization recommended that any concerns about unprofessional conduct would be more appropriately dealt with by the relevant licensing body. It noted that the results of such an investigation by the appropriate licensing body may warrant journalistic coverage, but that that was outside the scope of the present complaint.

The complainant stated they were satisfied with the news organization’s response to clarify the province in which the individual was licensed.

The complainant, however, raised other concerns about the extent to which family members enlisted the help of the individual and organization identified in the article. The complainant also raised questions about the non-profit status of the organization involved in the investigation.

The news organization noted that it verified at the time of publication that the missing individual’s father had enlisted the help of the organization and reiterated that the other concerns would be more appropriately dealt with by the relevant licensing body.

In reviewing the matter, Council considered standards surrounding accuracy and best practices related to updating information after publication. Standard journalistic practice is to take steps to ensure all information is accurate prior to publication. 

At the same time, the NNC recognizes that mistakes may sometimes occur or that published information may merit further clarification or updates following initial publication. In cases where information has been found to be factually incorrect or incomplete, best practice is to update the article and notify readers of the changes in a clear and consistent manner as soon as possible.

In this case, Council recognized that the news organization took steps to reconfirm the published information and, as a result of their exchange with the complainant, issued a clarification for readers on the specific province in which the individual was licensed.

Council agreed that the update published by the news organization provided readers with relevant context and addressed the original concern raised by the complainant. It also agreed with the news organization that the complainant’s subsequent concerns, including an individual’s professional conduct, fall outside the scope of the complaint at hand.

In light of the update to the article and for the reasons outlined above, Council found the matter resolved due to corrective action.