• J-Source

    Censorship: Alberta to create movie czar

    CBC reports on Alberta’s new censorship law, Bill 19, “New Alberta film bill creates movie czar, inspectors.” Cinema owners and movie distributors in Alberta are upset, said CBC, because the law would “create a team of theatre inspectors and a new movie czar with indisputable authority” that could act on the “whim” of the government.…

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    Rogers & Shaw to CRTC: CanCon web levy is illegal

    Rogers Communications vice-chairman Phil Lind told the CRTC that a proposed small levy to support online Canadian content is illegal, a view later echoed by Shaw Communications, reports The Globe and Mail, setting the stage for a possible court challenge.

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    Rogers to Mag Awards: Cancel the show

    According to a report in the Globe and Mail, Rogers Publishing CEO Brian Segal has told the National Magazine Awards Foundation to scrap this year’s program honouring magazine writers, photographers, illustrators and editors, because there is “no money for any activities outside of producing magazines.”

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    Any good news out there?

    This week’s Big Issue editor scoured J-Source for good news – and there was more than you’d think. It seems tough economic times get people thinking about what’s working right. Tough times also inspire us to be better journalists. So here’s a dose of our good news, with a challenge: share your own good news…

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    Hand over Hearst’s legacy to us, says reporter

    San Francisco Chronicle reporter Delfin Vigil has put his money where his job is: he’s taken out a substantial ad on page 9 of yesterday’s Chronicle, suggesting that if the guys in suits won’t or can’t save the newspaper (and other struggling papers across the country) then they should hand it over to the reporters.

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    Media “necessity” and fair, says Tory

    John Tory thanked the media for being fair in his speech announcing his resignation as leader of the Ontario Conservative party. Oddly, Tory’s full comments on media were not in the CTV Web story about the speech. The quotes below are from Bill Doskoch’s blog. I want to say thank you to you because I…

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    Regina journalism school founder dies

    Ron Robbins, a long-time Canadian Press and innovative CBC journalist before he founded the University of Regina’s school of journalism, is dead at the age of 92, reported the Regina Leader-Post. “So modest was Robbins that he had friends like (Nick) Russell promise to keep mum on his death and would allow only a small…

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    Is Mother Jones the answer for independent journalism?

    Mother Jones has become “a real-life laboratory for whether nonprofit journalism — a topic of the moment in mainstream news media circles — can withstand a deep recession,” reports the New York Times. The people behind the American magazine — which won a National Magazine Award last year for general excellence — have long evangelized…

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    Will CanWest sell New Republic?

    Folio: is reporting that Martin Peretz, editor-in-chief and former longtime part owner of The New Republic, is in negotiations to buy back the assets of the magazine from CanWest Global Communications. CanWest gobbled up the American TNR in Feb. 2007. At the time, it seemed like a good fit for CanWest and its controlling Asper…