MP confident Cabinet will support her appeal on CTV, Global licence renewals

The New Democratic Party’s critic for culture and communications is confident the federal Cabinet will support her appeal of the recent CRTC decisions renewing CTV Inc and CanWest Global Communications Corp’s television network licences for a full term because of assurances made by the minister of Canadian Heritage that only Parliament would rule on major shifts in policy. Wendy Lill, MP for Dartmouth, says Sheila Copps assured the House of Commons Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage earlier this year that the CRTC would not make any long-term changes to the broadcasting landscape while the committee’s study on the Broadcasting Act was taking place. "If you are going to make major changes in broadcasting, they should be done by the front door, not by the back door," Copps told the committee during an appearance May 17 in response to a question from Lill. "It’s important that we have a transparent public process, and I think the best place for that process to be carried out is through a committee of the Parliament of Canada… It is extremely important that the current Broadcasting Act be respected until it is amended by an act of Parliament. I think the mandate we’ve asked you to undertake, coupled with the background work that’s been tabled with the committee, the studies we’ve done on the whole issue of media concentration, should form the basis for any new policy, not other parties." Says Lill, "I think this is pretty strong language. She gave us an assurance. (The licence renewal decisions) completely go against the spirit of what she said. In her role, she now has the ability to overturn those decisions or give the CRTC directions in accordance with the Broadcasting Act." Lill filed a petition with the federal Cabinet on Sept. 13 asking it to overturn the CRTC decisions granting seven-year licence renewals to CTV and Global – Decisions CRTC 2001-457 & 458 (CCR Update, Oct 3/01). Lill argues that allowing CTV and Global to control both TV and newspaper holdings with few safeguards "constitutes an alarming concentration of power of public expression," and presents a fundamental threat to broadcasting policy principles contained in the Broadcasting Act. "The dangerous and unprecedented increase in media concentration permitted by these CRTC decisions must not be allowed to stand," Lill concludes in her petition, in which she asks Cabinet to return the licence renewal decisions to the CRTC with clear directions. Specifically, Lill recommends Cabinet call for limited one-year licence renewals for CTV and Global while asking the commission to develop a policy for the orderly divestment of cross-owned properties in preparation of a cross-ownership ban. In the meantime, Lill urges the Cabinet to direct the commission and licensees to develop "comprehensive rules to protect the independence and diversity of opinion of journalists from print and broadcasting media owned by the same company." In an interview, Lill noted that her petition is consistent with the NDP’s position on TV-newspaper cross-ownership, which was articulated by party leader Alexa McDonough during an appearance at the CTV-Global licence renewal hearings. "I’m not coming from left field on this," Lill told CCR. "The whole idea of convergence is not a new idea; it’s a bad old idea that was rejected after great study (years ago)," she adds, referring to the Davies and Kent commissions that studied media concentration. The Trudeau government banned cross-ownership of TV stations and newspapers in the early 1980s after the report of the Royal Commission on Newspapers (Kent Commission). "We have assurances from the minister of Canadian Heritage that (the standing committee’s review) means something… The entire environment has changed with these decisions and it’s quite appropriate to appeal that," says Lill. "A complete change in the broadcasting policy is happening through the back door and not through Parliament." Act calls for diversity of views Lill argues that the CRTC erred in granting full seven-year licence renewals for CTV and Global without allowing for public discussion on a "fundamental policy shift." That, she asserts in her petition, is an obvious contravention of the Broadcasting Act, which calls for a "reasonable opportunity for the public to be exposed to the expression of differing views on matters of public concern." "The purpose of this policy is to allow citizens in a multimedia society to act as informed citizens with real choices on their dial, in their newspapers and on the Internet," Lill states in her petition. "It is not to make us into captive sets of eyeballs for huge advertising budgets framed by formulaic news and general programming on a multitude of ‘content platforms’." Lill does not buy Canadian media companies’ argument that they must converge to remain competitive in the global market. "Where they’re coming from is the battle of economics. That is not my battle. My battle and the battle of Parliamentarians and the people within regulatory agencies has got to be an informed Canadian public. Their decisions have to meet the goals of the Broadcasting Act," she says. Lill also argues in her petition that the CRTC’s decision to separate the broadcast and newspaper newsrooms of Quebecor Media Inc created two sets of rules for media companies – Decision CRTC 2001-384. She states that it is Cabinet’s duty to ensure that all players in the media sector play by the same rules. Neither CTV nor Global responded to CCR’s requests for comment on Lill’s petition.

MP confident Cabinet will support her appeal on CTV, Global licence renewals

News | 10/11/2001 4:00 am EDT

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