[R-G] 'Journalism is under siege across Canada, ' journalists tell CRTC

[Anthony Fenton]

The Hill Times, September 24th, 2007
NEWS STORY
By Simon Doyle
'Journalism is under siege across Canada,' journalists tell CRTC
http://www.hilltimes.com/html/cover_index.php? 
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CAJ and Canadian Media Guild say part of the reason for the decline  
in quality news comes from 'repurposed' content
Media consolidation has reduced the quality of journalism in Canada,  
creating a "crisis in local news" and an environment in which  
journalists are overworked and fewer are "digging beyond the press  
release or the sound bite," journalists told a CRTC hearing last week.

"In the space of a daily news cycle, it is virtually impossible for  
one reporter to do an adequate job on a television news item, a  
newspaper story, a web story, even covering a routine press  
conference," Mary Agnes Welch, president of the Canadian Association  
of Journalists, which has about 1,400 members nationally, said at a  
CRTC hearing in Gatineau, Que., last week.

"There is far less time to consult a variety of views, to verify  
information, to treat sources critically, to understand background  
and context, to track down documents and to explain the information  
in the clearest and most useful way to readers and viewers. There is  
certainly no time left to do some old-fashioned digging, following up  
on tips or courting sources, the kind of gumshoe reporting that often  
yields the groundbreaking stories," she said.

The hearings come as the CRTC studies the regulatory landscape amid  
increasing media consolidation after multi-million-dollar takeover  
deals between CTV-CHUM and CanWest-Alliance Atlantis. The Canadian  
media industry is now dominated by large players such as CanWest  
Global Communications Corp., which owns Global television stations  
and 11 daily newspapers in Canada; CTVglobemedia, which owns The  
Globe and Mail and radio and television stations across the country;  
and Quebecor Media, which owns the Osprey Media chain, the Journal de  
Montreal and Journal de Quebec, the Sun Media Corporation (and its  
newspaper chain), and the TVA television network.

Spokespersons for the CAJ and the Canadian Media Guild last week said  
part of the reason for a decline in quality news comes from a push in  
news organizations to "repurpose," i.e. repackage, news content from  
print to TV to the web, or vice versa.

"Repurposing content doesn't count as diversity," Ms. Welch said.  
"Taking newspaper content, for example, and rewriting it for a free  
daily, putting it up on the web or interviewing the newspaper  
reporter on the evening news is not diversity of content. It is the  
same content regurgitated through the various platforms. It is the  
same interviews and facts, the same reporter's interpretations, and,  
yes, even the same reporter's mistakes."

Lise Lareau, president of the Canadian Media Guild, appeared with the  
CAJ on a panel before the CRTC hearings in last week, and said that  
in the age of repurposed content, journalists are expected to do more  
work with fewer resources.

"Fewer people are working harder to produce and repurpose the same  
content for a variety of formats," Ms. Lareau said, whose  
organization represents 6,000 television, print and radio journalists  
across Canada at the CBC, the Canadian Press, TV Ontario, Reuters,  
Alliance Atlantis and the Aboriginal People's Television Network.  
"This has a real impact on journalism. It means that in many cases  
fewer people are out there on each story asking the hard questions,  
doing the background research and digging beyond the press release or  
the sound bite from the scrum."

Ms. Laureau said that the most "insidious" form of repurposed content  
is when news agencies require print journalists to cover a program on  
one of the parent company's television stations, treating the program  
"as if it is news."

"We have heard similar complaints from our colleagues at CanWest  
newspapers, who are asked to report on Global Television Network's  
programming," Ms. Lareau said.

Major media owners such as CanWest and CTVglobemedia could be  
affected as the CRTC considers a number of regulatory moves in its  
study on the "diversity of voices" in the media. One proposal could  
limit companies' cross-ownership of media such as radio, television  
and newsprint in a single market. Some have called on the CRTC to  
require more local news coverage as broadcasters renewal licences.

CRTC chairman Konrad von Finckenstein opened hearings last week by  
saying that the purpose of the proceedings is to ensure that the  
broadcast system provides the public with "the greatest possible  
diversity of voices." Mr. von Finckenstein later added: "We are very  
concerned about concentration, because it could lead to undue market  
power and so few voices, and that may affect our democratic system."

In advance of the hearings, the Canadian Media Guild submitted a  
document recommending ways in which the CRTC could play a role in the  
"renaissance of the Canadian media system." Among the Media Guild's  
proposals are the "strict prohibition" against a corporation owning  
more than one television station in a single market; a "limit on  
local cross-ownership" that prohibits a corporation from owning both  
a television station and a daily newspaper in the same market; and a  
limit on cross-ownership so that one company cannot own more than 20  
per cent of all television, radio stations and daily newspapers  
across Canada in English or French; and licensing that forces  
newsrooms owned by the same company to have independent editorial  
decision-making and newsgathering.

The Media Guild submission says there is a "crisis of local news,"  
alluding to CTVglobemedia's purchase of CHUM last year, which  
resulted on layoffs of 280 employees and put an end to four local  
Citytv newscasts in Winnipeg, Calgary, Edmonton, and Vancouver.

The Media Guild says that "one of the first attacks on local TV news  
emerged at CBC," when, between 1991 and 2001, "hundreds of employees  
were pulled out of local news at the public broadcaster." It supports  
the CBC's recent move to full-hour local evening news broadcasts, but  
criticizes the CBC for doing so without additional funding. The  
submission adds that the phasing out of free, over-the air television  
broadcasts in 2012 is "another threat on the horizon that will make  
it even more difficult for Canadians to access local news programming."

It's unclear which way the CRTC is leaning in its regulatory plans.  
At least one commissioner last week felt a need to address a shortage  
in local broadcast news. "I don't speak for the commission, [but] I  
would say the quality of news is appalling on commercial radio in  
Canada," CRTC Commissioner Stuart Langford said at one hearing, which  
were held all day all week. "It's almost non-existent. And to add it  
up by numbers is one thing, but to look at the quality of it, in my  
view, it's shocking."

Another document submitted to the CRTC prior to the hearings, signed  
by 30 journalists and freelance writers in the Vancouver area,  
including Deborah Campbell, J.B. MacKinnon, and Chris Tenove, said  
that "we believe that journalism is under siege across Canada." The  
submission goes on to say that talented journalists are choosing to  
leave the profession as a result of lower-quality jobs.

"In our experience, the growing concentration of the news media has  
reduced demand for in-depth investigative journalism, a crucial  
element of a healthy national media," the submission says. "In this  
increasingly concentrated ownership environment, we find that the  
media outlets are paying less for freelance work and demanding more  
extensive control over copyright in the past."

The Media Guild submission to the CRTC says that a decline in the  
quality of news is primarily influenced by low numbers of independent  
media outlets and a desire by both public and private media  
organizations to cut costs in the areas of original programming and  
newsgathering.

CanWest withdrew from the Canadian Press news cooperative this year,  
a move that the company said was largely intended to strengthen its  
content ownership. The company is awaiting approval to take over  
Alliance Atlantis Communications.

Right now, the CRTC does not limit media companies from cross- 
ownership, but can place limits on licence renewals or takeover  
approvals where they concern the availability of Canadian content.  
Some submissions to the CRTC pointed to laws in the United Kingdom,  
Australia, and the United States, which have regulations such as  
limitations on media ownership.

The major media companies CanWest, CTVglobemedia, Quebecor and Shaw  
Communications argued last week that media consolidation, with the  
millions of voices on the internet, is increasing the diversity of  
voices in the media, not limiting them, and that Canadian companies  
must remain significant players to compete with international media  
companies such Rupert Murdoch's NewsCorp.

"On a daily basis, most Canadians have access to local news from at  
least three and sometimes more over-the-air television stations, and  
an even greater number of local radio stations, and one, if not two  
or more, local newspapers," Rick Brace, president of CTV, said at a  
hearing last week. "[A] plurality of editorial voices doesn't  
necessarily mean it's going to make better news. It doesn't  
necessarily mean the product is going to be better. I mean, what we  
would argue is that, through consolidation and the building of strong  
companies, we have a better chance of making that product better."

CanWest argued that it is satisfied with the current regulatory  
regime and would not support limits on cross-ownership or new  
obligations for local news or editorial independence. CTV added that  
there are no barriers to new entrants who want to compete in Canada's  
media industry.

Some of the discussion last week surrounded the issue of "self- 
censorship" in reporting and whether the business interests of large  
media organizations influence journalists' stories. As Russell Mills,  
former publisher of the Ottawa Citizen, said before the Senate  
Standing Committee on Transport and Communications in 2003: "The  
principals of the company [CanWest] have been quite open about their  
desire to use their newspapers to promote their interests and views.  
Staffs of the newspapers have learned which issues are sensitive and  
when to censor themselves. For example, you are unlikely to find much  
that is favourable about the CBC or about Palestinians in CanWest  
newspapers."

Steve Wyatt, senior VP of news and information for CanWest  
MediaWorks, acknowledged before CRTC commissioners last week that  
self-censorship has been a "problem that has existed since we started  
to write words"; however he said it is not a phenomenon particular to  
CanWest or media consolidation. "I don't really see it as an issue of  
common ownership. I see it as something we struggle with everyday,"  
he said. "You know, we struggle with advertisers, we struggle with  
owners, we struggle with politicians and lobby groups. I mean, there  
is no end of the pressures on journalists to meet everyone else's  
expectations of what a story ought to be."

Mr. Wyatt went on to assure CRTC commissioners that newspapers and  
broadcasters decide on the membership of editorial boards  
independently of corporate management. "The newspapers decide who  
sits on their boards, and we decide who works on the management side  
of our television operations. There is no linkage," he said.

Robert Hurst, president of CTV News, similarly said there is no  
direct or indirect pressure on reporters to self-censor stories. Mr.  
Brace said CTVglobemedia's statement of principles ensures editorial  
diversity, and added that editors and writers determine editorial  
direction.

Commissioners last week appeared wary, however, of introducing  
regulations that may interfere with the editorial decisions and  
independence of newsrooms. "We're very reluctant to interfere in  
anyway with journalistic independence," Mr. von Finckenstein said.  
"To what extent do we get into the business of journalists? And I'm  
not convinced our job is to tell journalists not collaborate or work  
together."

As Mr. Langford also said: "The closer we get to the newsroom, the  
more we risk people saying, 'get out of the newsroom'."

sdoyle at hilltimes.com

The Hill Times