Jaspan explains why the Age covers dredging like it does

<p>Andrew Jaspan, editor in chief of the <em>Age</em> and the driving force behind the newspaper’s coverage Melbourne’s channel-deepening, has explained the newspaper’s position on dredging to <em>Lloyd’s List DCN</em> . </p> <p>Viewed by many in the State Government and the Port of Melbourne Corp as anti-dredging, Mr Jaspan emphasised the newspaper’s brief to inform and protect the community.</p> <p>He explained that the direction of its reportage had been informed by doubts that senior political and industry figures had expressed about how the decision to dredge was arrived at and its implications for the wider populace, and by the newspaper’s place in society.</p> <p>"Our job and, I think, the role of a newspaper is, to act as a watchdog, to scrutinise, to question a range of issues," Mr Jaspan said.</p> <p>"The critical thing is here is that the <em>Age</em> sees itself very much as part of the community.</p> <p>"It sees itself as a paper that wants to both secure [the community’s&#93 prosperity, secure its growth, but do all this mindful of a number of issues."</p> <p>Informing his personal disquiet were comments from "a number of players" who had told him privately that they felt insufficient thought had been given to the project.</p> <p>"And they’ve talked about the fact that the port of Melbourne development is not really integrated into [wider&#93 transport issues," Mr Jaspan said.</p> <p>Note: More of what Mr Jaspan had to say and other media issues related to dredging will appear in Thursday’s edition of <em>Lloyd’s List DCN</em> .</p> <br />