Former Radio-Canada journalist Michel Morin was appointed this week as commissioner with the Canadian radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission. Morin retired from Radio-Canada two years ago, after 34 years as a journalist, including as the chief editor of TV news for Radio-Canada and the French language news network RDI. Here’s the CBC story. Here’s the CRTC…
A couple of interesting items this week about corporate control of public information: A major U.S. telco censored two lines in a telecast of the band Pearl Jam. The lines were critical of U.S. president George W. Bush. From the response on Pearl Jam’s web site: AT&T’s actions strike at the heart of the public’s…
The behaviour of Yahoo and Google in China has long been controversial, because of allegations that the companies comply with Chinese censorship. Now Yahoo is on the hot seat before a U.S. congressional committee. An excerpt of a story in the Financial Times: A US congressional committee is investigating whether Yahoo intentionally misled Congress over…
From a report on the CBC web site: A survey conducted this July shows nearly nine out of 10 adult Americans believe there is too much coverage of celebrity scandals. Finally!!!!!Here’s the Pew report.
A story by Mike De Souza of CanWest concerns a report blaming mainstream U.S. media for “stalled international efforts to reach an agreement to fight climate change.” An excerpt of the story: The report, in the latest edition of a magazine published by Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting, said there are multiple examples of major…
Weekend protests against Chinese repression of press rights by Reporters Without Borders included a giant flag flown in Paris showing the Olympic rings transformedinto handcuffs; a bicycle rally in New York with the “Beijing 2008” handcuffs graphic; a news conference in Beijing outside the building that houses the Beijing Organising Committee; and a news conference…
The NDP is charging political interference by the federal government, in the search for a president and a news chief for the CBC. Tom Long, the man apparently in charge of the CBC head-hunting task for the firm Egon Zehnder International, is a former Canadian Alliance leadership candidate and is well-connected to the top tiers…
The editor of the Oakland Post in California was gunned down on Aug. 2. Was his murder linked to his work?
A cover story in Maclean’s entitled, “Lawyers are Rats,” is generating much controversy and attention from Canadian lawyers — which of course is the point of the provocative heading. The story is a full-on attack on the sleazy aspects of the legal profession. The Canadian Bar Association instantly demanded an apology then called the story…
Reporters Without Borders is stepping up its campaign to use China’s 2008 Olympics to draw attention to China’s repression of press rights, with a press conference in Montreal on Monday.