Cable firm puzzled by Yukon's election blackout breach http://www.cbc.ca/news/canadavotes/story/2008/10/15/yk-blackout.html
The Yukon's cable TV provider is trying to figure out how it violated media blackout rules in Tuesday's federal election coverage by broadcasting early results while local polls were still open. Northwestel Cable viewers across the Yukon were able to watch election programs from Eastern Canada starting around 6:30 p.m. PT, with half an hour still to go for voters to cast their ballots. By 6:40 p.m., Yukoners saw Global Television declare a Conservative victory on its election program. CBC Newsworld feeds from Eastern Canada were also broadcast early in the Yukon. That runs afoul of Canada's Elections Act, which bans the transmission of election results from closed ridings to areas where polls are still open. "We think at this point that the problem was human error at our end, although we haven't finished our investigation. But we did start an investigation last night," Northwestel Cable spokeswoman Anne Kennedy told CBC News on Wednesday. "It certainly wasn't wilful, but we do definitely want to be proactive and disclose this to the electoral officer of Canada." Under Section 329 of the act, traditional audio and video broadcasts, websites and blogs were not supposed to report election results countrywide until all polls had closed — at 7 p.m. PT for voters in the Yukon and British Columbia, or 10 p.m. ET. The blackout was put in place to try to prevent posted results in the eastern time zones from influencing voters in the West. Yukon returning officer Sue Edelman told CBC News that Elections Canada will be looking at violations in the next few days, as soon as it receives the results of Northwestel Cable's investigation. Television viewers in Ontario, Manitoba, British Columbia and the Northwest Territories also reported seeing early election results before polls closed in their ridings. Elections Canada says it's investigating those violations. In addition, several internet blogs and social networking sites like Facebook posted comments and information about results in Eastern Canada while voters in western regions were still heading to the polls. --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ Like TV only smarter. You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TV or Not TV" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/tvornottv?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
