During a time when birth is the only prerequisite needed to report the news, via blogs and other online soapboxes, it’s interesting to note a proposal that calls for the licensing of accredited journalists.

The suggestion was presented last year by Quebec Culture Minister Christine St-Pierre, who said licenses would help readers judge whether the news they are browsing is credible.

“It is important to distinguish professional journalists, who are obligated to work in the public interest, from amateur newsgatherers and bloggers,” she said in the report.

In theory, I support the idea, (which I noticed while reading the biannual edition of the Langara Journalism Review) but there would be issues applying such a strategy.

Admittedly, licensing would help identify the journalists from those who are blindly angry at government, media or the satellites watching them in the sky – but people should be able to discern credible reporting from the rest, regardless of licensing.

However, licensing would help bring credibility back to news media, of which the reputation is damaged by rants masquerading as credible information.

Journalism licences could make the public aware of honest, objective, fair and accurate journalism.

But actually carrying out such a licensing plan would mean the government would have too much control over who is licensed and who isn’t. And it would need to be monitored by a government body for it to have any teeth to revoke a journalism licence.

A licence also wouldn’t eliminate the bad information provided by poor-quality “journalism” that is most often available online, and sometimes elsewhere. Would Fox News receive a licence if this were applied in the United States?

That’s the type of question that needs to be answered to address issues that would arrive in court during the aftermath of a licensing rollout.

Similar considerations may have been the reason Quebec’s Federation of Professional Journalists, after voting 87 per cent in favour of regulating journalists, decided to withdraw their suggestion after “further consideration.”

All that trained journalists can do to separate their work from the hoards of illiterate rabble, is to provide the public with credible news that brings out the truth.

Not all blogs belong in a pile of garbage, but the bad apples have soiled, to a degree, the type of news that can be groundbreaking.