Source: Mediacaster

More than 5,600 people have signed a petition from the watchdog group Friends of Canadian Broadcasting, calling for the CBC to retain the one-hour format of The National, and keep the flagship news program in its current 10 p.m. time slot.

The petition calls on the CBC's Board of Directors to declare that the show will remain the centrepiece of CBC News and that no decisions relating to its scheduling, funding, or format will be taken that will have the effect of diminishing the important role it plays to inform Canadians and to hold powerful interests to account.

The signatures were to have been presented to the CBC in advance of its annual general meeting held today in Ottawa.

The CBC, responding to an e-mail request for a response to the petition, says there are no such plans for moving The National.

"We have no comment except to note that, as we indicated after their first incorrect news release, there is not and has not been any plan to move The National. Nor will we speculate on their motives for distributing this or the earlier release," wrote CBC Head of Media Relations Jeff Keay.

Friends had warned earlier this summer than the CBC had "a secret plan to move The National" from 10 p.m. to 11 p.m. weeknights, reducing the reach and influence of the group calls "Canada's most important news program".

As Keay referenced, CBC denied the existence of the plan at the time.

An official press event is planned by the CBC to announce "a renewed CBC News" on October 9th.

© Mediacaster