Part 1 applications filed against Rogers’ OMNI production

The union representing Chinese-speaking media workers at properties owned by Rogers Communications Inc. and two other organizations have formalized complaints in two Part 1 applications that allege the company is offside of its licence requirements by outsourcing production of its Chinese-language news. The Unifor application, which was posted to the CRTC website Tuesday and is open for comment, is asking the regulator to call Rogers to an expedited public hearing to inquire about — and enforce — compliance with a condition of licence for OMNI Regional, which requires it to produce seven hours per week of Chinese-language news. The complaint stems from a successful application by Rogers to run OMNI Regional, the new national ethnic channel that received mandatory carriage on skinny basic TV packages for a three-year licence in May. The union said Rogers was contravening a condition of licence by contracting Fairchild Media Group Inc. to produce daily news coverage. Howard Law, union’s media director, told the Wire Report in September that Rogers is attempting to save money and not pay the $27 hourly wage under Unifor’s collective agreement. Rogers said at the time that it maintains “full editorial control” over the content “produced by Fairchild for broadcast exclusively on OMNI Regional,” adding it believes its arrangement is “fully compliant with our licence requirements or we would not have entered into it.” The application also alleges that Rogers’ breach of that condition of licence and failure to enforce it harms the public interest and brings the “CRTC’s administration of its mandate into disrepute.” In a separate complaint posted Tuesday, the Chinese and Southeast Asian Legal Clinic (CSALC) and the Urban Alliance on Race Relations (UARR) supported Unifor’s application, arguing “not only should the news be produced in Canada but Rogers Media should actually produce it.” “Handing-off production of the OMNI Regional newscasts to Fairchild TV means eliminating the opportunity for differing views and could reduce access to local news by our communities,” the organizations said in the joint statement, pointing out the “different editorial stances” of OMNI and Fairchild. The organizations had previously criticized Rogers for cuts made to OMNI stations in 2015. In that case, Unifor made a similar request for an expedited hearing, but was denied early last year. It also asked that parties be able to cross-examine Rogers, which it is also requesting in this Part 1 application. The deadline for submissions responding to the applications is Nov. 16.

Part 1 applications filed against Rogers’ OMNI production

Brief | October 17, 2017

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Part 1 applications filed against Rogers’ OMNI production

Brief | October 17, 2017

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