[R-G] Free speech not safe from attack by Canadian media corporation

[Anthony Fenton]

Free speech not safe from attack by Canadian media corporation

September 23, 2008 By Robert Jensen

http://www.zmag.org/znet/viewArticle/18899

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When the bottom line is threatened, corporations typically show little  
concern for holding the line on political principles such as freedom  
of expression. In capitalism, freedom is too often just another word  
for maximizing profits.



But even when we have no illusions about the predatory nature of  
modern corporate capitalism, there's something particularly  
disheartening when a media corporation abandons free-speech  
principles. Journalists are supposed to be the good guys on freedom of  
expression, right? If for no other reason than self-interest,  
shouldn't media managers support these principles?



Yes, but apparently not when ideology gets in the way, as seems to be  
the case at Canada's largest media corporation.



CanWest -- owner of newspaper, television, and online properties,  
including one of the country's national dailies and a TV network -- is  
trying to use trademark law to punish political activists' free speech  
in a classic SLAPP (strategic lawsuit against public participation).



This case is relatively simple: CanWest's founder, Izzy Asper, was a  
vocal supporter of Israel, (he's been quoted as telling the Jerusalem  
Post, "In all our newspapers, including the National Post, we have a  
very pro-Israel position. ... we are the strongest supporter of Israel  
in Canada.") and CanWest papers have maintained that ideological  
commitment since Asper's death in 2003.



To highlight this pro-Israeli slant in CanWest papers, the Palestine  
Media Collective produced a parody of the Vancouver Sun that included  
such stories as "Study Shows Truth Biased against Israel, By CYN  
SORSHEEP." As with most parodies, some of the attempts are clever and  
some fall flat. But there's no way to not recognize it as a parody.  
(You can see for yourself by reading online at http://www.straight.com/article-144790/emfrankem-challenges-CanWest?#)



Because the folks who produced the parody were anonymous (they've  
since stepped up to identify themselves publicly), CanWest sued the  
printer and another activist who had passed out a few copies, Mordecai  
Briemberg, claiming a trademark violation. Such a suit is legitimate  
only when the plaintiff can show there's a reasonable likelihood that  
people will confuse the fake with the real and that some harm will  
result. In this case, there clearly is no confusion and no harm, and  
hence no serious claim. But CanWest presses on.



Calling the Collective's paper "a counterfeit version" that amounts to  
"identity theft," CanWest seems to want to frame this as a kind of  
intellectual-property terrorism: "This piece was not satirical. It was  
not a clever spoof. It was a deliberate act to mislead and misinform  
thousands of people by using the actual Vancouver Sun masthead, logo  
and layout," reads a company statement on the case.



According to a 2007 story in the Vancouver Sun, CanWest believes that  
the defendants were "motivated by hostility to the principal  
shareholders of the plaintiff and by a desire to undermine, or hurt,  
the business of the plaintiff and its principal shareholders" and  
"harbour antagonistic views towards the plaintiff, its principal  
shareholders and the reporting and editorial opinions expressed in the  
plaintiff's publications, including in The Vancouver Sun."



This all seems a bit thin-skinned for a media company, given how  
journalists take pride in their role as tough critics. It's true  
enough that the activists in question don't seem to like the reporting  
and editorial opinions of the Sun and its parent company. And it's not  
unusual for those who believe that an information source is unreliable  
to encourage people to seek information elsewhere. So, I suppose  
there's a fair amount of antagonism on all sides. As for motivation, I  
have interviewed Briemberg, and I didn't pick up on any hostility.  
He's a longtime activist, driven by the concerns for social and  
economic justice that motivate most people on the political left. If  
he's hostile to anything, it's to injustice.



But this can't be about feelings, of course; it's about freedom of  
speech and press in a democratic society. If CanWest prevails -- if  
citizens' judgments about the quality of a newspaper's coverage can be  
the grounds for a lawsuit -- then media criticism in Canada is made  
more difficult and democracy suffers. In a mass-mediated society,  
people must be free to critique that powerful institution just as they  
critique government and other businesses.



That brings us back to journalists and freedom of expression. Given  
this situation, one might expect a flood of stories by Canadian  
journalists to defend freedom of expression and criticize CanWest for  
its bullying tactics. But apart from the story in the Sun, my search  
revealed one news story in the Toronto Globe and Mail and a mention of  
the case by one of that paper's columnists. Some web sites have  
reported the story, and activist groups are weighing in. Professional  
associations of librarians and teachers are on record opposing the  
suit. But where are the journalists from the corporate press? It's no  
surprise that journalists at CanWest papers are keeping their heads  
down, but why the silence from most others?



CanWest is a big company with an ideological axe to grind. We should  
critique the company's abuse of power in filing the suit and count  
this as a reminder of the potential problems that come with media  
concentration. But the silence of other journalists should trouble us  
even more. When a profession that provides so much of our information  
won't hold itself accountable, it's a threat not just to journalism  
but to democracy.



--------------------------------



Robert Jensen is a journalism professor at the University of Texas at  
Austin and board member of the Third Coast Activist Resource Center.  
His latest book, All My Bones Shake: Radical Politics in the Prophetic  
Voice, will be published in 2009 by Soft Skull Press. He also is the  
author of Getting Off: Pornography and the End of Masculinity (South  
End Press, 2007); The Heart of Whiteness: Confronting Race, Racism and  
White Privilege (City Lights, 2005); Citizens of the Empire: The  
Struggle to Claim Our Humanity (City Lights, 2004); and Writing  
Dissent: Taking Radical Ideas from the Margins to the Mainstream  
(Peter Lang, 2002). Jensen can be reached at rjensen at uts.cc.utexas.edu  
and his articles can be found online at http://uts.cc.utexas.edu/~rjensen/index.html 
.