THERE ARE facts, and then there is the truth.
When we consider media convergence in Canada — and, in particular,
our biggest media conglomerate, CanWest Global Communications — it is
important to understand that facts and truth are not always the same.
Here's a fact: Several columns that once appeared in CanWest Global
newspapers, including one by Stephen Kimber in the Halifax Daily News,
have been killed, either for unspecified inaccuracies, or because they
challenged corporate policy. All decisions, according to head office, have
been made by local editors.
Here's the truth: In a remarkable act of integrity, Daily News
editor Bill Turpin resigned this week, but not before saying that he
killed Kimber's column after being advised by Murdoch Davis, his CanWest
boss in Winnipeg. "I and other editors had been urged repeatedly by Mr.
Davis to get his advice on any prospective commentary that might run
contrary to Southam Publications' rapidly changing editorial policies,"
Turpin said in an unpublished letter. "To my profound regret, I did so in
Mr. Kimber's case. Mr. Davis told me in colourful terms that publishing
the piece would be a career disaster."
Issues of editorial control raised by his letter, and the sheer
size of CanWest Global's influence over news, have raised legitimate
questions about how free our so-called free press is.
CanWest Global owns 27 daily newspapers. That's a fact. They
include the National Post and major newspapers in Ottawa and six of 10
provincial capitals. They distribute 11.4 million copies every week. This
is dwarfed by Global's television network, which beams itself to 94 per
cent of English-speaking Canada (Source: CanWest Global). The company's
radio, film, Internet and entertainment holdings give it unprecedented
control over the information Canadians use every day.
Saying CanWest's newspaper empire is modest when compared to Conrad
Black's is like trying to justify Bosnia because it was more humane than
the Holocaust.
Saying that we don't need a federal inquiry into media ownership
because "press freedom is freedom from state censorship" (National Post)
is like hitting me over the head with a frying pan and saying it's about
cooking. Our Charter of Rights grants press freedom to everyone and stands
against censorship from any quarter, including those who own the presses.
CanWest's corporate motto is: "If you can watch it, read it, hear
it, or download it, we want to be the source." Fair enough, but its owners
want Ottawa to help by giving them more tax money, and emasculating the
CBC.
These are important public policy issues, but can we count on
CanWest to allow a full debate of the pros and cons in its newspapers? It
already orders its 14 largest papers to print identical, weekly editorials
on national issues, and forbids any dissent.
We are therefore right to ask: Do we want our newspapers edited by
people who are afraid to publish strong opinions until they are cleared
with head office?
Do we want what Doug Creighton, founder of the Toronto Sun, called
Wizard of Oz journalism — with no brains, no heart and no courage?
Concerns about the effects of convergence are growing. Something must be
done.
John Miller is author of Yesterday's News and director of
newspaper journalism at Ryerson.
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