{"id":1373,"date":"2011-11-16T12:32:33","date_gmt":"2011-11-16T20:32:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/?p=1373"},"modified":"2011-11-16T15:02:01","modified_gmt":"2011-11-16T23:02:01","slug":"investigative-journalist-holman-shuts-down-public-eye","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/2011\/11\/16\/investigative-journalist-holman-shuts-down-public-eye\/","title":{"rendered":"Investigative journalist Holman shuts down Public Eye<\/i>"},"content":{"rendered":"

After over eight years of single-handedly running a website featuring investigative news stories, local journalist Sean Holman announced on November 1 that he was suspending daily reporting on publiceyeonline.com.<\/p>\n

Public Eye<\/em> was known for breaking stories and digging deep on issues that were overlooked in news releases, press conferences, and question periods.<\/p>\n

Holman\u2019s investigations held BC\u2019s politicians accountable, and often created change in the province.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Sean Holman has long been the face of investigative journalism in Victoria (photo provided).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Now, after 6,000 stories, and 200,000 unique website visitors a year, the time has come to put his website to rest, he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the end of the day, it was financially not viable,\u201d says Holman.<\/p>\n

He says he was able to make some money from advertising and donations, but not enough to continue the site.<\/p>\n

\u201cI guess it was just time, more than anything else. I started it up as a public service, and it was the love of my life, until I met the love of my life,\u201d says Holman. \u201cAs a publication, I think Public Eye<\/em> totally punched above its weight on a regular basis, and broke tons of stories. Every single one was a piece of information that hadn\u2019t been reported before.\u201d<\/p>\n

Many of Holman\u2019s stories had significant impact, bringing to light situations that otherwise would have remained hidden.<\/p>\n

\u201cSean Holman has a wide view of the lobbying landscape in British Columbia, and has probably done more to keep lobbying in the public eye than any other reporter,\u201d says information and privacy commissioner Elizabeth Denham.<\/p>\n

Holman investigated criminal activity at legal gaming facilities and exposed the risks associated with the provincial government allowing taller wood-frame buildings. His story on former Liberal campaign co-chair Patrick Kinsella contributed to changes in the province\u2019s lobbying laws.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am a passionate believer in the ability of journalism to make a difference in society,\u201d says Holman. \u201cEngaging and informing the public is the best safeguard we have for democracy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Public servants and journalists recognize that Holman was a leading investigative journalist in BC.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m very sorry to see him forced to shut down his blog,\u201d says Times Colonist<\/em> political columnist Les Leyne, who Holman worked with on an investigation of consultant Douglas Walls. \u201cPeople would look to him as to what was going on around the edges. It was interesting to fill out the whole picture.\u201d<\/p>\n

This isn\u2019t the last people will hear from Holman. He\u2019ll continue to teach journalism at UVic, host a talk show at CFAX 1070, and write for the Globe and Mail. <\/em>He also has plans to film a documentary.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not going away,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After over eight years of single-handedly running a website featuring investigative news stories, local journalist Sean Holman announced on November 1 that he was suspending daily reporting on publiceyeonline.com. Public Eye was known for breaking stories and digging deep on issues that were overlooked in news releases, press conferences, and question periods. Holman\u2019s investigations held […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1432,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1373","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-november-16-2011"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1373","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1373"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1373\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1477,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1373\/revisions\/1477"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1432"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1373"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1373"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1373"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}