Saturday February 22, 2020 ~ NATIONAL
~ West Shore Voice News
The Canadian Radio and Television Commission (CRTC) will be holding hearings starting May 25, and the Friends of Canadian Broadcasting will be there.
At the hearings in Gatineau, Quebec (starting at 6 am Pacific Time on May 25) the Commission will consider applications by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation/Société Radio-Canada (the Corporation) to renew the broadcasting licences for its various English- and French-language audio and audio-visual programming services.
The Canadian broadcasting system is comprised of the public, private and community elements that together contribute to the maintenance and enhancement of national identity and cultural sovereignty. The activities and programming provided by the Corporation form the national cornerstone of the public element and serve as a key source of information, enlightenment and entertainment for Canada’s diverse population across the country.
Services provided by the CBC to Canadians are working under a three-year strategic plan. The agreement between CBC and the Canadian government is up for renewal.
Meanwhile, the ‘Friends’ pro-CBC organization did a survey in recent weeks, with public submissions thereby backing up their claims to maintain Canadian content and not enhance digital services at the expense of Canadian content. As well, the survey showed that Netflix is not seen as a good contributor or shield for Canadian content.
Last week, the Friends of Canadian Broadcasting organization delivered about 7,000 messages from CBC fans, as part of the Commission’s review of CBC’s licences. A few of those comments included:
- “The CBC is the crown jewel of Canadian broadcasting. It should not be a copy of private broadcasting.”
- “The CBC is an essential public service, a cultural treasure, and must be both properly funded and protected from those interests which want to destroy public broadcasting.”
- “As a taxpayer, I feel ample support for CBC it is an excellent and important expenditure of public funds with the priceless return of informed and connected citizens.”
- “CBC is Canada. CBC is home.”
The idea that podcasts are the ‘antidote’ to social media is explored by the Friends organization.
Read the full report that Friends of CBC has presented to the CRTC.
Read the full survey report.
CRTC website
===== RELATED:
A new initiative from Journalists for Human Rights aims to train journalists to recognize and help counter disinformation, misinformation and malinformation online, and help protect our democracy.
Remembering two prominent women in Canadian journalism: Christie Blatchford and Anne Kingston (As first published in the February 14 to 16, 2020 weekend edition of West Shore Voice News )
“Words are not enough?” – Editorial (by Mary Brooke, West Shore Voice News – February 14, 2020)