Source : Montreal Gazette

by Chris Cobb

OTTAWA – The CBC is considering a controversial plan that could eventually integrate its radio and TV news operations and potentially bring the public broadcaster's journalism under closer political scrutiny.

The plan, which is expected to bring more more job cuts at the CBC and Radio-Canada and further squeeze budgets at CBC's regional outlets, is similar to one promoted earlier this year by Liberal appointees on the CBC board of governors.

Board members, and some key CBC executives, wanted to create a powerful news czar to oversee journalistic operations in Quebec and English Canada. The plan was shelved amid denials that it was even being considered.

In a memo last month, CBC-TV vice-president Harold Redekopp, warned his staff that changes are coming.

"We will have to find even more ways of operating more efficiently and effectively," he said, "new approaches to sharing and integrating all the considerable resources at our disposal, and new methods of doing business and earning income."

The so-called integration of news services is one of several "efficiencies" being considered by CBC-TV.

Redekopp is said to favour amalgamating radio and television news under one boss but the notion will be resisted by radio employees, who fear that radio news and current affairs will become secondary.

The first round of integration being considered will involve CBC-TV news, Newsworld and regional news outlets.

The fear remains in CBC newsrooms that the board of directors wants more influence over political coverage. And integration, with fewer executives, could help them achieve that, some say.

Redekopp refused to speak about integration plans, but CBC spokesman Ruth-Ellen Soles said they would not be ready before new CBC president Robert Rabinovitch begins work on Nov. 15.

Rabinovitch faces many challenges when he takes the CBC helm and important among those is reinforcing the arm's-length principle in which government does not interfere in the broadcaster's operations.

Prime Minister Jean Chrétien launched an unprecedented public attack against CBC-TV coverage of the pepper-spraying incident at the APEC student protest in Vancouver and the subsequent public inquiry into the RCMP's handling of the demonstrations. Chrétien also has long had a deep suspicion that Radio-Canada newsrooms are hotbeds of separatism.

CBC journalists suspect that the Prime Minister's Office exerts influence through its Liberal friends on the board of directors, headed by chairman Guylaine Saucier.

If the new plans for integration bring  more cuts to regional CBC programming, they will run afoul of the country's broadcast watchdog – the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC).

CRTC commissioners, concerned that the CBC stick to its legal mandate of substantial regional coverage, are in the throes of responding to CBC proposals for increased services, including specialty TV channels and a new youth-oriented radio network. Their decision will be announced before Christmas.

Ian Morrison, spokesman for the pro-CBC lobby group Friends of Canadian Broadcasting, expects the CRTC decision will emphasize the CBC's regional commitment

Morrison says the cuts to regional CBC radio and TV programming have become a political issue.

"Even if the CRTC decision doesn't mention it," said Morrison, "and even if the CBC is deaf to it, regional programming is on the public agenda. Even cabinet ministers notice that regional programming has been eviscerated. It's gone too far."

Integration, adds Morrison, is another word for chopping and, from a news and current affairs point of view, is essentially concentration of ownership.

"To make CBC radio and TV one operation is a reduction of services," he said.  "They should not be allowed to get away with the word integration.  It is chopping."

After Chrétien's office announced his appointment last week, Rabinovitch refused to be specific about his plans for the CBC.  He said the public broadcaster needs to carve out a niche that complements private broadcasting.

He said he hadn't studied the proposals for extra services the CBC executives had put before the CBC and would not comment on them.  He did, however, indicate that he intends to put some distance between the government, the CRTC and the CBC.

"The reality is," he said, "that the CRTC and the government can kill the CBC but they can't run it."

© The Gazette