The CanWest Chill: "We do not run in our newspaper Op Ed pieces that express criticism of Israel"
Roger Alexander
The CanWest Chill: "We do not run in our newspaper Op Ed pieces that
express criticism of Israel"
The 7 December 2001 broadcast of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's
As It Happens [Real Audio link] uncovered a disturbing example of
corporate and political interference in freedom of the press. The
program reported on a new editorial policy directive from CanWest
Global, a leading Canadian media conglomerate, that impairs readers'
ability to make up their own minds about the Israeli-Palestinian
conflict, among other issues.
As It Happens reported that over two dozen journalists at the Montreal
Gazette have pulled their bylines to protest a new policy imposed by the
newspaper's owners, Southam Newspapers Inc, which is owned by CanWest
Global.
The new policy requires the company's main local newspapers to run
editorials written at headquarters in Winnipeg by Southam
Editor-in-Chief Murdoch Davies.
Bill Marsden, an investigative reporter at the Montreal Gazette, noted
that up to 156 times a year -- about three times a week -- the editorial
would be imposed and that the remainder of locally-written editorials
would be required to reflect the viewpoints and stances taken by the
paper's corporate headquarters.
Does this influence really matter? Yes, it does. CanWest's 2000 Annual
Report states that:
...[O]n July 31, CanWest announced its acquisition of all of the major
Canadian newspaper and Internet assets of Hollinger Inc., including the
metropolitan daily newspapers in nearly every large city across Canada
and a 50% partnership interest in the National Post. We closed that
transaction successfully on November 16, 2000, following completion by
the Competition Bureau of its three-month review of the transaction.
The magnitude of these deals is unprecedented. Just a few months ago,
the $860 million WIC purchase was the largest acquisition in the history
of Canadian media. The $3.2 billion transaction to bring the Hollinger
newspaper assets to CanWest remains the biggest media convergence deal
ever consummated in Canada. The deal transformed CanWest into a $7.5
billion international media company and the largest Canadian publisher
of daily newspapers.
Note that CanWest Global has not just limited itself to the Canadian
media. It additionally owns media organisations in Ireland, Australia
and New Zealand.
The centralised editorials penned at corporate headquarters will be
published in Southam's metropolitan newspapers in key populations
centers in Canada -- Victoria, Vancouver (The Sun only, not The
Province), Edmonton, Calgary, Regina, Saskatoon, Ottawa, Windsor, St.
Catharines, Montreal, Halifax, Charlottetown and St. John's -- and will
be reprinted in the National Post. Editorials will be clearly identified
as emanating from Southam News, not from the various local papers' own
editorial staff, who will be forbidden to alter or contradict them in
any way.
According to Marsden, since taking over the chain of newspapers CanWest
Global has encouraged all of its subsidiaries' editors to hew to a
particular political line, resulting in less criticism of Canada's prime
minister as well as the consolidation of a pro-Israeli perspective in
editorials about the Middle East.
Regarding Middle East reporting, Marsden quoted the Montreal Gazette's
editor as characterising Can West as "very sensitive," and went on to
explain:
"[T]hat is to say they do not want to see any criticism of Israel. We do
not run in our newspaper op-ed pieces that express criticism of Israel
and what it is doing in the Middle East etcetera. We do not have that
free-wheeling debate that there should be about all these issues.
We even had an incident where a fellow, a professor at... the University
of Waterloo, wrote an op-ed piece for us in which he was criticising the
anti-terrorism law and criticising elements of civil rights etcetera.
Now that professor happens to be a Muslim and happens to have an Arab
name. We got a call from headquarters demanding to know why we had
printed this.
Now this kind of questioning goes on all the time. Our TV
critic...devoted half a column to a documentary which was run on CBC,
Witness, on Israeli soldiers targeting journalists -- and primarily
Palestinian journalists -- in Hebron. Now this column was almost killed.
She had to go to protest to the union before it was finally run, and
[the management] asked her to make changes which would have somehow, in
their view, softened it or something.
This kind of chill is through the whole place and it's very dangerous
because it breaks the trust with readers and I think eventually will
hurt the asset.
In a second interview on As It Happens, Southam Editor-in-Chief Murdoch
Davies, who writes the editorials from headquarters, argued that the
development was reasonable, noting that there were perhaps 50-60
editorials and pieces of local commentary a week in addition to the 2-3
from the head office. However, he did not deny the issues of primary
importance to those concerned with coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian
Conflict:
Interviewer: But if the paper's editorial board took a position on say
'Prime Minister Chretien [garbled]', or Israel, that was absolutely
contrary to the editorial written from your office, would they be able
to write that?
Davies: No. It is clearly the intent that the newspapers will speak with
one voice on certain issues of overarching national or international
importance...
1. CENTRALISATION LIMITS DIVERSITY OF OPINION - CanWest's editorial
policy demonstrates the dangers posed to press freedoms by the corporate
centralization of news media, a process that has been accelerating over
the last decade throughout North America. Such threats to press freedoms
pose serious dangers for democratic governance itself. Without a free
and lively debate of every issue from all angles, citizens cannot
participate fully in the political decision-making process conducted in
their names domestically or internationally. This is particularly
important in the case of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which is
already dominated in the media, as it is on the ground, by the Israeli
worldview.
As noted in a December 11th statement issued by 55 Montreal Gazette
journalists who have pulled their by-lines to protest this new policy:
"Far from offering additional content to Canadians, this [policy] will
practically vacate the power of the editorial boards of Southam
newspapers and thereby reduce the diversity of opinions and the breadth
of debate that to date has been offered readers across
Canada.Journalists have a duty to be faithful to the interests of their
readers. Our responsibility is to seek the truth and encourage
free-wheeling debate on a full range of issues and present stories and
ideas in as dynamic a way as possible. Blatant pressures applied to
editors by CanWest have damaged this process at major newspapers across
Canada. The company is narrowing debate and corrupting both news
coverage and commentary to suit corporate interests. A free press is no
longer free when competing voices disappear, yet the federal government
has recently permitted two large corporations, CanWest and BCE Inc., to
secure a stranglehold on Canada's major, privately-operated television
and newspaper outlets."
Source: "How CanWest is threatening press freedom", Globe & Mail, 11
December 2001.
Noting that media coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict already
faces fundemental problems:
Express your support for the 55 journalists at Montreal Gazette who are
defending Canadian citizens' right to participate fully and responsibly
in democratic decision-making processes by expecting a diverse,
opinionated media. Write to: Raymond Brassard, Managing Editor of the
Montreal Gazette and Bill Marsden, the reporter interviewed on CBC.
Express your displeasure to Don Babick or the corporate offices of
Southam Newspapers at this centralisation of editorial policy, which
limits diversity of opinion, squashes debate, and distorts public
perceptions and knowledge of key national and international issues,
thereby obstructing the very processes of civic participation so
necessary to sustain a vital democracy:
Don Babick
President and Chief Executive Officer
SOUTHAM PUBLICATIONS
1450 Don Mills Road
Don Mills, Ontario
M3B 2X7
Tel: (416) 445-6641
Fax: (416) 442-2077
dba...@nationalpost.com or dba...@corporate.southam.ca
Alert all your colleagues and networks to this corporate attempt to gag
and limit editorial policies across Canada. Send them the address for
this page: electronicIntifada.net/actionitems/20011211.html
Due to the news blackout about this issue in CanWest Global-owned
publications, write letters to the editors of competing newspapers, the
Globe and Mail and the Toronto Star (links lead to letter writing
guidelines and addresses).
Please write original letters and do not simply copy & paste the
information above. As always, be as BRIEF as possible, POLITE, quote
accurately, and include your name, address, and telephone number (which
most publications require to ensure publication or to officially
register a complaint). Send a copy of any protest and particularly, of
any response you receive to in...@electronicIntifada.net.
This action item (#21, 11 December 2001)
was prepared by Laurie King-Irani and Nigel Parry.
==========================================
Freedom of the press, ah yes! Free to the man who owns one.
What was that talk about the media being biased?
RLA
Šee
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