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Facebook pics reviewed

Thomas Chamberlin

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

© The Cairns Post

 

A COUNCIL employee in uniform pictured giving a rude hand gesture on a public networking website has forced a review of Cairns Regional Council's Facebook policy.

Today, chief executive officer Noel Briggs will send a memo to staff about the new policy after yesterday’s embarrassing admission the employee’s profile did not portray the council in a good light.

But Mr Briggs said the Mossman-based local laws enforcement officer would not be punished despite the ramifications of the profile being accessible to millions of people.

It came as the Local Government of Queensland yesterday called for councils across the state to review their policies in light of the incident.

"You have expectations in our code of conduct that you are shown in a good light," Mr Briggs said.

"The example you showed me doesn’t do that.

"It (Facebook) should be treated in the same way as other media engagement activity (and) we have a policy that no one should engage the media as an officer without following our policy,"

Another profile accessed by The Cairns Post shows 22-year-old councillor Kirsten Lesina’s public profile set as: "Kirsten Lesina just saw Zack and Miri Make a Porno and loved it!’

It also lists memberships to groups "come the f--- on bridget" and "1 million strong against Labor".

Mr Briggs said he would contact Cr Lesina as a "friend" to suggest setting her profile as private but said she had done nothing wrong and did not list her employment.

LGAQ president Paul Bell yesterday urged councils to review their code of conduct in the wake of previous scandals.

"The codes will be more complicated as we deal with these new issues that are coming at us from all over the world … we have to continually review our codes of practices to ensure these mediums are doing the best," he said.

Mr Briggs said future Facebook code of conduct breaches would be dealt with in the "normal practice" and yesterday requested the employee crop the image and reference to her employment.

She had become a citizen on Austraia Day and had responded to what another staff member had said after being given items of an Australian theme, a letter to Mr Briggs said.

 


Poked: The Facebook image.


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