NewsBritish Columbia’s attorney general promises sweeping changes to make the province’s courts more open in the wake of a Victoria Times Colonist investigation that exposed inconsistent access practices at courthouse registries. Mike de Jong says an outdated policy that authorizes clerks to withhold an entire file when a publication ban protects a name or other…
NewsThe Victoria Times Colonist has published a four-day series exposing glaring inconsistencies in public access to court records at British Columbia courthouses. Some court officials cited a legally flawed, 16-year-old policy similar to one discredited and abandoned in Ontario last year that allows them to withhold files if there is a publication ban on a…
The government of British Columbia breaks its own law on meeting freedom of information requests nearly half the time, reports a legal study on freedom of information. Or, in the words of a newspaper headline, the province is accused of “rampant censorship” ….
CommentaryThe new defence of responsible communication is good news for the media, but Ryerson University’s Jeffrey A. Dvorkin doubts it will usher in a new wave investigative journalism. As layoffs continue and newsrooms are pared down to the editorial bone, the ability of news organizations to engage in deep, contextual investigative journalism is far from…
New defences to libel actions don’t come along every day, so what exactly does the pair of Supreme Court of Canada rulings handed down December 22 mean for journalists? An expanded definition of “public interest,” a list of the steps journalists should take to produce a solid, libel-proof story, and good news for bloggers. Dean…
NewsThe Supreme Court of Canada has created a new libel defence – the defence of responsible communication on matters of public interest. In a landmark ruling that orders new trials in libel actions against two Ontario newspapers, the court introduced the British defence of responsible journalism with a new name and some made-in-Canada modifications. The…
“Is Stephen Harper going too far in trying to control his image?” asks The Globe and Mail. “The Prime Minister’s Office is sending out a steady stream of publicity photos in the hope they will be used in newspapers and blogs across the country. But photojournalists believe Harper’s handlers are going too far…” This link…
CommentaryLegal battles to identify confidential sources used by investigative reporters Andrew McIntosh and Daniel Leblanc will force the Supreme Court of Canada to address a question that strikes at the heart of press freedom: Where to draw a line between a journalist’s ethical duty to protect sources — sources who may be risking their careers…
NewsA tribunal has struck down a controversial provision of Canada’s Human Rights Act that bans hate speech on the Internet. Section 13, already the target of an independent review into its broad scope and potential for abuse, violates the constitutional right to free speech, the vice-chair of the Canadian Human Rights Commission ruled Sept. 2.…
CommentaryDo journalists have the right to protect a confidential source? Can a news outlet be sued for libel if it made every effort to get the story right? Does publicizing a crime make it impossible for the suspect to have a fair trial? These issues are on the Supreme Court of Canada’s docket this fall…