Thursday February 20, 2020 ~ NATIONAL
Analysis by Mary P Brooke ~ West Shore Voice News
In response to news media alarm over the final report of the federal Broadcasting and Telecommunications Legislative Review Panel last week, Minister of Heritage Steven Guilbeault seemed to feel it was necessary last week to justify if not downplay any idea that Ottawa aims to regulate the news media.
“Let me be clear,” said Guilbeault. “Our government has no intention to impose licensing requirements on news organizations, nor will we try to regulate news content.” But then he followed with this: “We are committed to a free and independent press, which is essential to our democracy. Our focus will be and always has been to ensure that Canadians have access to a diversity of high-quality and credible news sources.” To create such assurances, their hand will need to be in the pot.
The Trudeau government says they won’t require the licensing of journalists and media, but seems strangely intent on overseeing the free and independent media to make sure news is of “high quality and diverse”.
As Terence Corcoran wrote in The Financial Post, February 5: “That’s no assurance of media freedom, especially in the context of the 235-page panel monstrosity that calls for major extensions of political and regulatory power over Canada’s communications systems.”
Virtually all of the panel report’s 97 recommendations call for expanded government authority. The panel seeks to “empower” the CRTC and “empower the Minister” to effectively “meddle, interfere, overturn, establish, ensure, exempt and compel action throughout the Canadian communication system,” wrote Corcoran. Legislation is expected to come by June 2020.
A $595 million fund (over five years) that was announced in the previous parliamentary session favours big corporate media over the financial well-being of small independent news services, using the guise of ‘supporting local media’ but providing meaningful support only through tax deductions that only large media outlets can afford to carry in advance. The lure of suggesting that media outlets become non-profits ultimately fell with a thud amongst those who needed the support most.
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This article was first published on page 3 in the February 14 to 16, 2020 weekend digest edition of West Shore Voice News.
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