OTTAWA—CRTC chair Konrad von Finckenstein says the commission tried to stall the amendment to its prohibition on false and misleading news for 10 years, but eventually gave into pressure from the Standing Joint Committee for the Scrutiny of Regulations when it proposed its amendments in January.

But now that the regulations committee has agreed to no longer pursue the issue, the chair says the CRTC will drop it.

“We never wanted to touch this thing. We put it forward because we were ordered to do it. We did what we thought would be a workable compromise,” von Finckenstein said in brief interview Friday at the Prime Time conference in Ottawa, organized by the Canadian Media Production Association.

“I was perfectly happy with what it was before, and I’m sure at the next commission meeting, we will withdraw this attempt at rewriting.”

On Thursday the Standing Joint Committee for the Scrutiny of Regulations, a committee of the House and Senate, agreed to withdraw advice to the CRTC to water down a regulation prohibiting the broadcast of false and misleading news.

As a result of advice from the committee, the CRTC issued separate consultations in December and January to change its prohibition on the broadcast of false and misleading news so that it would instead be a prohibition on “any news that the licensee knows is false or misleading and that endangers or is likely to endanger the lives, health or safety of the public.”

The parliamentary regulations committee, which scrutinizes regulations to ensure they are implemented correctly and conform with the law, had initially raised the issue 10 years ago, telling the commission that there were Charter issues with its prohibition on the broadcast of false and misleading news.

The committee again raised the issue in a letter to the commission as recently as Dec. 23, 2010, in response to the CRTC's consultation launched in December. 

Von Finckenstein said during a question-and-answer presentation at the conference Friday that the commission tried to stall the amendment as long as possible.

“For 10 years we stalled. We ran out of stalling devices. We finally put it out for consultation and it gets this wonderful twist,” he said, referring to a strong public reaction that suggested the commission was trying to lower news broadcasting standards in Canada.

“Out breaks a storm. Somebody reads into it that we are trying to lower the standard to allow Fox News to blossom,” von Finckenstein said.

“All I can say is, ‘Thank you committee.’ I will withdraw this proposal tomorrow. This is the end of this issue.”

The regulations committee initially argued that the CRTC’s prohibition on the broadcast of false or misleading news was not consistent with the Supreme Court’s 1992 ruling R. v. Zundel, which, on the basis of freedom of expression under the Charter, struck down the Criminal Code’s prohibition on the publication of false information or news.

But the CRTC argued that the Criminal Code provision struck down by the Supreme Court was far broader, covering all published statements.

Due to the power and immediacy of broadcasting, the harm resulting from the airing of false or misleading news is greater than the publication of false or misleading statements, the commission argued.

The restriction is also not a limitation on the public, but on holders of broadcasting licences.

Parliamentarians on the regulations committee said they support that argument Thursday, and agreed to write a letter to the commission saying it is no longer pursuing the issue.

The proposed amendment had elicited national headlines, an online campaign by Avaaz.org, and more than 3,000 comments for the CRTC's consultation that closed Feb. 9.

Von Finckenstein added that he hopes the commission will never have to use the regulatory power, which is enforced through the issue of broadcasting licences.

“It's not mainly our business to get into that. I think journalists, the profession, should deal with this issue.”

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