Source : The House

Excerpt from The House on the CBC's Radio One

Anthony Germain: Media saturation, the five hundred channel universe, radio stations gobbling up every space on the dial and more newspapers then any normal human being can possibly read in a day.  Yet some senators believe voters, at least in some parts of Canada, are badly informed.  A Senate committee has been holding hearings into the media into the media in this country and how it covers the news.  CBC reporter Sandra Abma joins me now in the studio. Good morning Sandra.

Sanra Abma: Hi, Anthony.

Anthony Germain: Now, Joan Fraser, she's been on the show before… If you could just remind people who she is, because she is heading up this investigation.

Sandra: Right, well Joan Fraser, she's a former journalist of course and she describes herself as a dyed in the wool newspaper woman. She began as a cover reporter… It's the old story, she began as a cover reporter at the Montreal Gazette and eventually she became the editor in chief of the paper.  Now when Conrad Black and the Hollinger newspaper chain took over the Gazette, she left.  And at that time she warned that the diversity of opinion are under attack when one person owns a slew of newspapers.  Now, then comes 2002, Canwest decides to run one national editorial in the Southam chain of newspapers and Joan Fraser also stood up and took notice.

Joan Fraser: I would be telling a lie if I didn't say that some of the immediate impetus among some of my colleagues came from Canwest Global's decision to run the famous national editorials.  But you don't set up a whole senate committee inquiry just because of somebody's editorials.  You don't do that.  There happened to be and there was a much greater underlying sense that it's been too long since we looked at this, it's been a generation since we looked at this…

Anthony Germain: So Sandra, where had Joan Fraser found the most egregious or intense examples of media concentration in our country?

Sandra Abma: Well New Brunswick is one example, the Irving family owns all the daily newspapers there, several weekly newspaper and several radio stations.  Nationally, we can look at Bell Globemedia, it owns the Globe and Mail and CTV.  And in Vancouver we can look at… The Senator says that may be the greatest example of media concentration in the country.  We've got Canwest Global owning two big dailies and a string of community newspapers and the local television station in the area.

Anthony Germain: Sandra, if media concentration is problem, what is the heart of that problem?

Sandra Abma: Well for Senator Fraser and some of the others involved in the committee, the problem was in the lack of information getting out to voters.  Owning media outlets, of course, has become a huge business and owners, like any owner of a large corporation are concerned about the bottom line and the convergence that results often leads to layoffs and that means fewer voices are reporting on the news.  And there is one aspect of that that seems to make a big difference.  Chris waddell is one of the witnesses at the Senate hearing into media concentration and he teaches journalism at Carlton University and is a former CBC executive, he says as small town newspapers have been bought out by media corporation, more and more of them have fired their reporters in Ottawa. 

Chris Waddell: There was a Hamilton Spectator reporter in Ottawa, up until the late 80s or 90s. They covered the Hamilton MPs, they let the national stories by covered by the wire service and they would look at what are our local MPs doing, how do they play into the national stories, what are the issues… So, those local MPs got a lot of profile, the Hamilton MPs in the Hamilton spectator, the London MPs in the London Free Press and the Regina Leader Post, Saskatoon Star Phoenix and they don't anymore… But, people were reading about what those people were doing and more generically they were also reading about what members of parliament did.  Maybe, that let them think that members of parliament were more important and they though voting for members of parliament was important.

Sandra Abma: Now this is what Joan Fraser is worried about Anthony, she says that Waddell's study suggests that when news goes enroute, streamlined operations and centralized news coverage, their subscribers and people that read their newspapers in communities across Canada are losing loosing out.  Fraser says that Chris Waddell presented her committee with this informal study that analyzed voting that looked at three communities across Canada and voter turnout.

Joan Fraser: Correlating voter turnout with whether or not the local paper had a correspondence in Ottawa, the idea being that maybe if you had your own correspondent in Ottawa that correspondent would be filing back the news that was of particular interest to your newspaper and your region.  And there did seem to be some correlation.  That's to me, a very important indication of how important these things are in the fundamental function of a democracy, and a community where people are engaged.

Anthony Germain: I guess Sandra, I should point out that its not just the private media outlet that have cutback on their coverage… If you look back, a lot of Members of Parliament were very upset when the CBC cut supper time newscasts.

Sandra Abma: And they are still upset, and that's one of the drives for the CBC to return to local news coverage, because MPs want to see themselves and their local issues on local television.  But this particular investigation Anthony, is into private sector only and we are just beginning to see the big media giants coming before the committee.  Well Torstar recently appeared before the Senators, here in Ottawa.  Torstar is the Toronto Star, the Hamilton Spectator and a number or community papers, and websites of course.  Robert Prichard is the CEO of Torstar corporation, and he actually came to the Committee and questioned their right to conduct the hearings in the first place, as a possible threat to freedom of the press.

Robert Prichard: We believe very strongly, that the state should not interfere in any way, directly or indirectly, in the newsrooms of Canadian newspapers.  To paraphrase our late Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, "the State has no business in the newsrooms of the nation".  We resist unequivocally any notion that the parliament of Canada has any role in legislating or regulating the work of Canadian newspapers.  Furthermore, in our view, the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, in enshrining freedom of expression and freedom of the press has created a constitutional prohibition on interference in our work.

Anthony Germain: Interesting Sandra, that every couple of decades, somebody comes around and decides that they better take a look at the media.  You think about media concentration and parliament, there was the Davies report in the 60s, Kent in the 80s…

Sandra Abma: That's right Anthony, and you know, those recommendations that came out of those inquiries were ignored by the government. And what we have today is greater media convergence and media concentration then ever, and less regulation of it then in most countries. 

Anthony Germain: It certainly doesn't bode well for Senator Fraser though does it?  I mean, what can she actually expect to accomplish?

Sandra Abma: Well Fraser says the Canadians that she has heard from are demanding some sort of action.  And in this case, compared to the past, her recommendations have had a more friendly response from the government.  So the Commons Heritage Committee and Liza Frulla, the Heritage Minister have stated their own concerns about media concentration and they say that they are looking forward to Fraser's report in June. 

Anthony Germain: Alright.  I would just like to see what they do with it once they get it.  Ok Sandra, thanks!

Sandra Abma: Thanks!

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