CRTC Petition for Democratic Media

More than 1,800 Canadians wrote to the CRTC last summer supporting the 'Stop the Big Media Takeover' campaign asking for rules to ensure the diversity of voices in our broadcast system. In January, the CRTC released new policies, acknowledging Canadians’ concerns about media ownership concentration, yet doing little to reverse the situation.

Supporters' comments to the CRTC documented a deepening concern in cities and towns across Canada about availability of a diversity of viewpoints, information and programming choices, especially from local media. They point to a concentration of media ownership, media companies costs cuts reducing local newsgathering and reporting, and their continuing failure to invest in Canadian content programs. Excerpts from these comments can be found here (http://democraticmedia.ca/sites/democraticmedia.ca/files/crtcdiversity_commentsCC_0.pdf).

The CRTC says it will do thye following 4 things; (1) Review its policies to ensure “the development of a healthy community broadcasting sector.” (2)
(3) Stop a single company from controlling a number of stations and specialty channels that together reach more than “45 per cent of the total television audience share.” (“cap on common ownership of TV services”). (4) Stop a single company from owning radio, TV and a daily newspaper in a single town or city (“prohibition on cross-ownership of media”).

However, the CRTC is refusing to deal with these immediate problems: (a) Remove any licence requirement for media companies that own several outlets to maintain separate newsgathering operations in each outlet, and depend instead on a voluntary code to ensure that editorial decisions remain separate. This decision will benefit Quebecor in Quebec and Toronto. (b) Nothing to prevent foreign ownership of the media, as we saw with the approval last December of the sale of Alliance Atlantis Broadcasting – the last independent Canadian specialty programming company – to U.S. investment bank Goldman Sachs through its Canadian minority partner CanWest. (c) Nothing to encourage more original programming that reflects the diversity of the Canadian population.

Without the voices of those Canadians who wrote to the CRTC last summer supporting the 'Stop the Big Media Takeover' campaign it could have been much worse. To help suuport this campaign for more Radio and television space for democratic debate join the campaign at www.unionvoice.org/your_media/join.html . You may also speak with your local MP and/or federal candidates about your opinion of current Canadian media.

Visit DemocraticMedia.ca to find out what’s new in Canada’s media democracy movement. As the Campaign for Democratic Media continues to grow as a national network, donations are being accepted to help sustain this work. To find out how you can become a financial supporter of the Campaign check out www.democraticmedia.ca/donate.