Confusion over Guilbeault remarks on BTLR online news recs

OTTAWA — On Monday Heritage Minister Steven Guilbeault, with some help from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, walked back comments he made over the weekend to CTV News regarding licensing of online news, following the recommendations of an expert panel that news websites be brought into the CRTC’s regulatory sphere. Speaking to reporters in the foyer of the House of Commons Monday morning, Guilbeault said the government would not seek to regulate the news media in any upcoming legislation to update the Broadcast and Telecommunications Acts. “Our government has no intention to impose licensing requirements on news organizations nor will we try to regulate news content,” Guilbeault told reporters. Over the weekend Guilbeault said the government would seek to apply licensing requirements to “distributors.” “If you’re a distributor of content in Canada -- and obviously if you’re a very small media organization the requirement probably wouldn’t be the same than if you’re Facebook or Google, there would have to be some sort of proportionality embedded in this -- we would ask that they have a license, yes,” Guilbeault said. The Broadcasting and Telecommunication Legislative Review panel, known as BTLR, released its long-awaited report last Wednesday. The report recommends bringing online news content under CRTC jurisdiction, which would require news websites to register with the commission. News websites wouldn’t have to pay levies or contributions, like the panel recommended for online platforms like streaming services, though they would benefit from them. They would also be exempt from discoverability requirements that would be imposed on platforms like Netflix Inc., Facebook Inc. and Alphabet Inc.’s YouTube. However, news aggregators would also have to register and would not be exempt from contributions and discoverability rules. One of the report’s 97 recommendations was that the CRTC impose requirements on “media aggregation and media sharing undertakings” that that include “links to the websites of Canadian sources of accurate, trusted, and reliable sources of news with a view to ensuring a diversity of voices; and prominence rules to ensure visibility and access to such sources of news.” The report recommends that the CRTC be allowed to “impose codes of conduct, including provisions with respect to resolution mechanisms, transparency, privacy, and accessibility regarding all media content undertakings.” News aggregators would be included in the definition of “media content undertakings,” but the report does not explicitly include news websites themselves in that category. Today, Guilbeault said “we will not ask news organizations to have a license.” “On the issue of discoverability, media organizations would need to have a licence but that would not – and media can be confusing, I recognize that, because the report talks about media but not necessarily in the sense necessarily of news agencies. Maybe the confusion comes from there,” the minister said before abruptly ending the press conference. Conservative industry critic Michelle Rempel Garner spoke to reporters immediately following Guilbeault, and said “the minister has twice called Canadians stupid,” and accused the minister of attempting to regulate free speech and the press. “We’re now treading into a space where we’re starting to give social acceptance and normalization to erosion of freedom of the press, and that’s problematic.” “I don’t think he walked it back far enough,” Rempel Garner said. Guilbeault sought to further clarify the government's position during Question Period Monday afternoon. “The report done by an independent body that we received last week specifically said that news media should be exempted for license requirements. Let me be clear on our intentions, our government will not plan to impose licensing requirements on news organizations,” he said. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau also weighed in on the controversy in response to a question from Conservative leader Andrew Scheer. “We will not impose licensing on press agencies, we will not regulate their content eithert. Our goal is to ensure that Canadians have access to credible, high quality news, and we are currently studying the report’s recommendations,” Trudeau said. In an emailed statement Carmel Smyth -- the president of the Canadian Media Guild, the union representing some 5,000 journalists -- said that “we expect there will continue to be explanations and clarifications from many sides as we unpack the report and recommendations.” “There’s no question media independence remains key, and we have to be watchful of any measure that might threaten that,” Smyth said. “The confusion comes from the use of the term ‘media’ in the report,” Guilbeault said on CTV News Monday evening while declining to provide his definition of media, and reiterated his commitment to tabling legislation within a “matter of months.” — With reporting by Michael Lee-Murphy at mleemurphy@thewirereport.ca and editing by Anja Karadeglija at akarad@thewirereport.ca

Confusion over Guilbeault remarks on BTLR online news recs

Broadcast | February 3, 2020

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Confusion over Guilbeault remarks on BTLR online news recs

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