Witnesses at Heritage committee support media forum, disagree on who should pay for it

Witnesses before the House of Commons committee on Canadian Heritage all agreed Tuesday that a forum on the future of the media is required. Whether government has a role was a subject for debate. The MPs heard from two groups and two individuals of differing opinions. John Gormley is a Saskatchewan lawyer, former radio talk show host and onetime Progressive Conservative MP. He chaired the committee in 1988 when it was called communications and culture. He dampened ideas that more public assistance could help the sector. “I don’t necessarily accept the supposition that the Canadian media is in trouble because it’s underfunded by government,” he stated. “The government has nothing to do with this. The media is in trouble because it did two things: it bet on a modernized definition of journalism that backfired and lost audiences. And secondly it whistled past the graveyard as the internet and social media developed technology to migrate content and revenue away from the media.” Media have wandered from their past to get into advocacy journalism, he alleged, and the public tuned them out. He quoted former US president Ronald Reagan who said the most frightening words in the language were “I’m from the government and I’m here to help.” Journalist and author Tara Henley supported the call to keep government out of funding any forum on the future. She concedes there are challenges. “The problems facing Canadian media are complex and multifaceted and our newsrooms are under enormous pressure” she asserted. “We know the collapse of the Canadian media is largely economic. The internet has disrupted our industry and the advertising business model has imploded. Also sounding the alarm was Brent Jolly, executive director of the Canadian Association of Journalists. He said the proposed forum was a decade too late. “Many journalists in Canada are hurting,” he said. “We are hurting financially as salaries do not keep up to inflation or as staff positions are replaced by internships or not at all. We are hurting emotionally, oscillating between the challenges of navigating an increasingly hostile world while trying to ignore the deep feelings of anxiety about the next so-called cutdown day, when it will come.” The Friends of Canadian Media was more hopeful in its presentation. Sarah Andrew, director of government and media relations, thanked the government for the changes brought about by the Online Streaming Act and the Online News Act. “I’d like to start out by acknowledging parliament’s most recent actions,” she stated. “Bill C-11 and C-18 triggered considerable debate but together these policies represent a necessary and vital impulse: to do something, to act rather than to acquiesce, to react to the eroding impact that foreign tech companies are having on our news, our culture and even our democratic health.” She said one of the most constructive things Parliament can do is to ensure sustainable funding for CBC/Radio-Canada. –Reporting by Paul Park at ppark@thewirereport.ca

Witnesses at Heritage committee support media forum, disagree on who should pay for it

News | 02/28/2024 4:15 pm EST

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