A VIEW ON THE IRVING NEWSPAPERS MONOPOLY IN NEW BRUNSWCK!!!

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By KIM KIERANS Community News

A SENATE committee has released a plan to ensure that Canadians will enjoy a wider choice of voices, ideas and debate through their newspapers, radio and television.

First of all it wants to control the slide towards too few people owning too much of these media.

The standing Senate committee on transportation and communications, which included former journalists Joan Fraser, Jim Munson and Pat Carney, found concentration of media ownership has accelerated and

reached unacceptable levels.

In Atlantic Canada the problem is bigger than ever.

Back in 1970 the Irving family’s domination of the media in New Brunswick was a highlight of the report of Senator Keith Davey. Ten years later the Irvings were again under fire from the Kent Commission.

This Senate committee finds that in 2006, the Irvings have an even tighter grip on media in New Brunswick.

"Probably the most emotional testimony was prompted by the extensive and growing ownership by the Irving family of New Brunswick," the report stated.

The concern is that Irving is "a dominant media force linked to a dominant industrial base."

The family owns all three English-language dailies, most weeklies and a growing number of French publications in New Brunswick. It also owns most of the presses in the province and has three radio stations. It is also estimated to have 300 companies in areas such as oil, transportation and forestry and employs eight per cent of the population.

"Competition is a great thing and personally I don’t think there’s enough," said Senator Jim Munson

He said journalists in Atlantic Canada told him that working in an environment with one dominant player created a prevailing feeling of self-censorship.

"That’s worrisome," he said. "The argument has been made that, ‘Oh, our editorials are different and we have different editorial boards.’ Somehow along the way in an economic environment like New Brunswick people have a tendency to perhaps look the other way or if you want to continue working look further away and I think those kinds of issues have to be addressed."

While the concentration in New Brunswick is a concern, the report noted that in a province with a population of just 752,000, Irving group ownership is likely responsible for the continued existence of the three dailies and many weeklies in the province.

Outside New Brunswick, Montreal-based Transcontinental Media has come to dominate the Atlantic newspaper industry.

Transcon now owns all the daily newspapers in Newfoundland, Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia with the exception of the Halifax Chronicle Herald.

It also owns almost all the weeklies in Newfoundland and a good chunk in the Annapolis Valley and southwestern Nova Scotia.

While this is an area of concern, Senator Joan Fraser said it’s not lethal. "Things change. I don’t think either the Irving interests or the Transcontinental interests or anybody’s interest are eternal." She noted that at one point Lord Black owned a "gigantic proportion of Canadian print and in rapid order he didn’t anymore."

The Senate report is clear. There’s no way to turn back the clock and undo the concentration and cross ownership of the media that the Davey Committee and Kent Commission predicted.

"The horse has left the barn. You can’t change all that," said Senator David Tkachuk.

"You have to start somewhere and build for the future," said Senator Fraser.

So, the senators envision a future with more competition and diversity of media voices. For that to happen, lawmakers will have to adopt rules for media mergers and sweeten the pot for new ventures.

The committee recommends financial aid to encourage new publications and to help them through those first tough years; more licences for community radio and TV; and improved broadband service in rural areas.

It wants the CRTC to make private broadcasters, especially radio stations, provide more local news and information, something most abandoned years ago.

It’s a tall order. Now it’s up to the public to look more closely at what the committee is suggesting. Don’t expect our concentrated media to provide you with much help.

Without public pressure it’s unlikely our MPs will soon be debating these recommendations and suggestions in Parliament, which means the Senate committee report will be added to the pile of well-intentioned but ignored studies into Canadian media.

Kim Kierans is director of the school of journalism at University of Kings College.

Online: www.parl.gc.ca/common/Committee_SenRecentReps.asp?Language=E&Parl=39&Ses=1