FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Ottawa -- Prime Minister Harper has retained the influence of his office over CBC with his choice to appoint a hand picked selection to replace Jean Chrétien's man as President and CEO of CBC.

FRIENDS' finds this troubling, particularly in view of Mr. Harper's well-known hidden agenda for public broadcasting and cultural sovereignty.

"Prime Minister Harper has ignored a unanimous recommendation of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage in appointing Hubert Lacroix as President of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation," said FRIENDS' spokesperson Ian Morrison

In 2003 the Heritage Committee recommended that: "...in the interests of fuller accountability and arm's-length from government, nominations to the CBC Board should be made by a number of sources, and the CBC President should be hired by and be responsible to the Board."

In common with other major corporations, the Board of Directors of the CBC should have the responsibility of hiring and firing its chief executive officer. The tradition of Prime Ministers appointing the CBC President and Board separates Canada from the best practice of other western democratic countries and calls into question the government's intentions for public broadcasting.

"It is against the national interest for the senior leader of Canada's public broadcaster to be appointment by a politician. In continuing his predecessors' practice, Mr. Harper has embraced a regrettable tradition which reduces the arms-length relationship between the national broadcaster and the government of the day," Morrison said.



For information: Jim Thompson 613-447-9592

  

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