The Irvings can continue to deny certain citizens to write letters to the edior against the Irving Empire! Sad day in New Brunswick indeed. What do you think?
Lack of rules allowed Irving media empire to grow: report
Last updated Jun 22 2006 02:06 PM ADT
CBC News
A Senate report on media concentration is calling for tougher restrictions when it comes to media ownership, especially in New Brunswick.
The Senate Committee on Transportation and Communications, under Senator Joan Fraser, spent three years studying the Canadian news media and made 40 recommendations, including several on concentration of ownership.
* FROM JUNE 22, 2006: Newspaper group says don't regulate media ownership
The Senate report cited New Brunswick as a good example of what the country should try to avoid. It says a lack of regulations has allowed the Irving family to become too dominant in the province's newspaper market.
"There is a prevailing feeling among some journalists in Atlantic Canada of self-censorship, that some are afraid to actually write what they think is right because they work in an environment where there's one dominant player," said Senator Jim Munson, a former reporter who began his career in New Brunswick.
The Senators want the Competition Act to be amended to trigger an automatic review of a proposed media merger that has that potential.
All of New Brunswick's major English-language newspapers are run by the Irving-owned company Brunswick News.
The family owns three daily papers in Saint John, Moncton and Fredericton and a host of weeklies in small communities across the province. It also owns an oil refinery, pulp and paper mills, and hundreds of other small and medium-sized companies across the Maritimes.
Kim Kierans, director of the journalism school at the University of King's College in Halifax, says many people who testified in front of the committee raised questions about the objectivity of the Irving papers.
She wasn't surprised by the committee's findings. "They were concerned about the fact that you have a dominant media force with dominant industrial base," she said. "The Irvings own 300-plus companies, are hugely wealthy and they employ about eight per cent of the population. There's a certain sense that that is a dangerous situation and it's a unique situation in Canada."
But Fraser says the recommendations are more about finding ways to change the media environment, and less about trashing big media owners that already exist.
"We're not accusing Irving of doing anything wrong. We are saying that the structure that has been allowed to grow over the years presents an almost classic example of how you could set up the situation where abuses could occur."
Thursday, June 22, 2006
IRVING LAWYER SENATOR JOE DAY MUST HAVE WORK VERY HARD IN OTTAWA???
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Newspaper group says don't regulate media ownership
Last updated Jun 22 2006 01:28 PM ADT
CBC News
The group representing several newspapers in Canada has strong concerns about any further moves toward the regulation of media ownership.
The Canadian Newspaper Association was reacting to a Senate report released Wednesday that recommends increased scrutiny on some media deals.
The Senate Committee on Transportation and Communications, under Senator Joan Fraser, spent three years studying the Canadian news media and made 40 recommendations, including several around concentration of ownership.
Anne Kothawala, president and chief executive of the Canadian Newspaper Association, is against the government getting involved in newspaper ownership.
"There is no role for governments in regulating the news media. And that's what freedom of the press is all about," she said.
It's not unusual in Canada for a media conglomerate to own a newspaper, a television station — and perhaps a few radio stations— in a single market.
That can cut down on costs, but the Senate committee worries it can also decrease the diversity of news coverage, analysis and opinion.
The committee heard complaints as it travelled across the country about that kind of concentration of ownership.
Irvings and New Brunswick
The report also notes the domination of the newspaper market in New Brunswick by the Irving family.
"There is a prevailing feeling among some journalists in Atlantic Canada of self-censorship, that some are afraid to actually write what they think is right because they work in an environment where there's one dominant player," said Senator Jim Munson, once a reporter himself.
The Senators want the Competition Act to be amended to trigger an automatic review of a proposed media merger that has that potential.
Kim Kierans, director of the School of Journalism at the University of King's College in Halifax, agrees there is reason for concern about the media environment in New Brunswick.
"They're concerned about the idea that there is in fact some self-censorship going on in the newspapers," she told CBC News.
"They were concerned about the fact that you have a dominant media force with dominant industrial base — so you know the Irvings own 300-plus companies — hugely wealthy and they employ about eight per cent of the population and there's a certain sense that that is a dangerous situation and it's a unique situation in Canada."
Concentration less of an issue
Kothawala disagrees. Concentration of newspaper ownership in Canada is less of an issue now than it was seven years ago, when Hollinger-Southam owned 53 per cent of the market, she said.
"Senators say that they're not interested in regulating the content of the news, but they truly are. They say that government has to regulate news to ensure a diversity of views, but in our view that's just wrong," Kothawala said.
The committee is recommending an automatic review under the Competition Act if concentration of media ownership reaches a certain point in a single market.
"We're not saying that big is bad. We're saying the public has to be heard when big gets even bigger," Munson told CBC News.
The Senators fear concentration of ownership can hurt news coverage. They cite a hypothetical example of a newspaper that's afraid to take the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission to task because the paper also owns radio and television stations that are regulated by the CRTC.
One example cited in the report is Vancouver, where both daily newspapers, the Sun and the Province, are owned by CanWest Global Communications. That company also owns the National Post, the popular local television station BC-TV and a number of community newspapers in the region.
The report is not binding. It's up to the government to decide whether to act on the recommendations.
Now Irving wants money from Ottawa for all the good he claims he ahs done by planting trees. What a joke. We, the citizens should be receiving dividends from the Irvings for all the polluting and further pollution and all the tax breaks and forgiveable loans and all these crazy back door deals.
And we all say Canada is a fair country yes for the wealthy and their friends; #### US.
This is a couple of excerpts from the Globe and Mail Newspaper on the Senate Report of which you now speak of.
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1 / The report also points out the dominant position held by New Brunswick's Irving family, which owns 15 daily and weekly papers and four radio stations in the province.
2 / The report does not recommend any retroactive action be taken to reduce existing concentration of ownership, even though Munson said the committee heard "worrisome" tales from some journalists,
particularly in New Brunswick where the Irving family owns all three daily newspapers as well as community papers and broadcast outlets.
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