This 'little guy' wins with her pen by Laura Graham
Source : Halifax Herald
Local journalist speaks out against N.B. media monopoly, wins award
June 19, 2005
In October of last year, the weekly independent newspaper in New Brunswick, called here, was bought by an Irving family company, Brunswick News Inc.
After more than four years of being the alternative news voice in Saint John, the paper tried to expand to Moncton. It met competition from the Irvings, who began their own weekly called the Metro Marquee. here couldn't match the Metro Marquee's advertising rates and the owners decided to sell their paper to the Irvings before they went bankrupt.
As a result, all English newspapers in New Brunswick are now owned by the Irving family.
This got Megan Wennberg, a native of Saint John and now a freelance journalist in Halifax, fired up.
"I have the belief that one person or one company owning all the media in a province or in a country just isn't a good idea," she says. "It's not a good idea for democracy. It's not a good idea for the public. It just limits the number of voices that can be heard because of who's controlling it."
She was going to give a commentary about the sale on CBC, except her father, a corporate lawyer for the Irvings, thought it might harm his firm in some way.
"He said he didn't want to quash me creatively, but he couldn't see how I could do it. Finally I had to call CBC and say I couldn't do it because my dad's obviously more important than this commentary."
Then Wennberg got an e-mail about the Dalton Camp Award, an essay contest put on by the Friends of Canadian Broadcasting. The theme of the award is "the link between democratic values and the quality of the media in Canada."
She felt compelled to write about the sale of here once again. She didn't worry about her father's concerns as much this time because she thought her essay would only appear on the web.
But then she found out she won the contest. She travelled to Banff, Alta., earlier this month to claim her medal and $5,000 in prize money. The news resulted in another argument with her father.
"He finally talked to his firm because he was basically thinking that he would have to resign before the essay came out," says Wennberg. "He talked to the partners and they calmed him down by saying that I'm not a member of the firm and they have no right to tell me what I can and can't write."
For Wennberg, it was just another example of how the Irvings pervade every aspect of life in Saint John.
"You don't really think about it all the time, because it doesn't come up. But it's always there. The smell from the pulp mill is always there, the oil refinery smoke towers are always there. Something like this just brings it to the surface."
Wennberg felt like she was speaking out on behalf of all of the people who couldn't.
"The Irvings are the economic force in the province and the city and your parents work for them, your friends' parents work for them and your brother and sister end up working for them. It's hard to be independent."
Wennberg says she was surprised when she saw a post-sale editorial in here's Jan. 6 issue, titled, "They're not evil, but they may be incompetent." It criticized the Irving media monopoly.
"They're not out for editorial control, generally speaking," says Wennberg. "It's just when all the writers know full well who's writing their paycheque that it's more self-censorship that will be the issue."
Wennberg notes that there is a Senate committee looking at the ownership of media in Canada right now. She knows it's a hot topic, but she doesn't know if her essay will have any influence.
"There aren't any anti-monopoly laws and there should be. Or there should be some sort of government program supporting people who want to put out independent, small community publications just to ensure that different voices are getting heard and not having the content dictated by some corporate mandate, which is ultimately to make money."
She says the Irvings are just a small example of what is happening all over Canada.
"Vancouver has the same thing. CanWest Global is a way bigger problem."
In the end, her father accepted the reassurance from his law firm and reconciled with his daughter.
"My dad was really proud . . . really happy."
7 comments:
Sent: Thursday, June 22, 2006 6:12 PM
Subject: June 22 06 (CBC) Newspaper group says don't regulate media ownership
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.
Stop dragging up old news Charles. Is that what your site will become now that you finally have a Liberal gov't?
I don't think so....I'm just going through some old emails people have sent me.
This is the reason that bloggers are so important.
The media will do a story and maybe they will re-visit the issue in one year afterwards but a blogger can blog the issue over and over!!!
The next few weeks, I will blog issues like
1- The Saint John Police Force.
2- The New Brunswick Human Rights Commission < This could become very ugly >
3- The ban at the Legislature. < Also an ugly situation!!! >
4- Roomers and boarders rights
As for the Liberals? Hey what do you think is going to happen if my issues are ignored?
Do you believe for one minute that I will say - OK.....That's fine....I'm going home now.....
Sorry...not going to happen!!!!
I'm a blogger remember???
The only people I figure that have a problem with Police, are those who break the Law :
The only people I figure that have a problem with Police, are those who break the Law :
Laura Graham rocks
Does anybody know if it's true, that there was a Protest at the CFBC Studios on Union Street about losing TOTT ?
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