Legislation & Regulations

Posted on 2017-01-02 in Labour Issues, Legislation, Special Sections // 0 Comments

A compendium of articles about bills, laws and regulations that have an impact on workers, organized labour, unions and journalism.

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CMG lauds review of CBC licence renewal ruling with emphasis on local news - The CWA Canada Local that represents most of the workers at the CBC is hailing a decision by the federal cabinet to grant its appeal and send a licence renewal decision back to the broadcast regulator for reconsideration. The Canadian Media Guild (CMG) said it was pleased that the Governor in Council has heard its concerns about CBC/Radio-Canada’s obligations to provide quality local news to Canadians across the country no matter where they live, on the platforms they access. The decision in late June by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) to renew the public broadcaster’s licences for five years, with minimal conditions, was widely criticized and resulted in a flood of petitions to cabinet. The CMG said it feared the CBC would cut back on television news programming in favour of spending on online content. Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez, responding to the appeals of many concerned Canadians, recommended the order in council that refers the matter back to the CRTC. “We are grateful that the order specifically states ‘that it is material to the reconsideration and hearing that the Commission consider how to ensure that, as the national public broadcaster, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation continue to make a significant contribution [...]

Alliance of media unions issues urgent call to save journalism, take on tech titans - CWA Canada has joined with other media unions in a global campaign to save journalism from the ravages of greedy corporations and monopolistic bully tactics of tech titans Facebook and Google. Declaring that “journalism is essential for democracy,” the unions and the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) issued an urgent call for governments around the world to take “bigger, bolder steps” to protect jobs and support a news recovery plan. Unions in Australia, Canada, Ireland, the United Kingdom and the United States, issued the statement in conjunction with the IFJ, which represents more than 600,000 journalists in 146 countries. Journalism is a public good. Journalism is essential for democracy. In the midst of a global pandemic the need for quality, independent information is vital. And yet, across the world, journalists’ jobs are being axed, media are closing down and information is being censored, restricted or used simply as a commodity to be bought and sold by hedge funds, corporations and tech giants. Facebook — by blocking news and public information sites in Australia — stands exposed as caring more about its profits than citizens’ rights to access information. Corporations are closing down local papers to protect their bottom line [...]

CWA Canada, IFJ urge Trudeau to make tech giants share ad revenue - CWA Canada and the world’s largest journalist organization are appealing directly to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to make tech giants such as Facebook and Google share advertising revenues with news outlets in this country. Martin O’Hanlon, writing on the behalf of both the media union he leads and the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), says in a letter sent today that the two companies “control over 80 per cent of Canada’s $6-billion online advertising market, yet they pay no taxes and they pay nothing for the content they use.” “For far too long, they have been earning money by linking to stories from Canadian news companies without compensation. It is simply not fair. They should be paying for copyrighted content.” What’s even more troubling, writes O’Hanlon, is the fact that “as these companies have raked in tens of billions of dollars over the years, thousands of Canadian media workers have been laid off and hundreds of Canadian publications have closed. It’s bad for journalism, bad for communities, and bad for our democracy.” “We call on your government to follow the lead of Australia and France, which are set to make digital companies pay for content use,” says the letter. The [...]

CBC union urges caution on reforms to broadcast rules - The main union at CBC/Radio-Canada is advising the federal government to proceed with caution as it considers recommendations for major regulatory reform of the broadcast and telecom sector issued by an independent panel on Wednesday. Among the sweeping changes the panel proposes are an end to advertising on a publicly funded CBC and that it be a leader in local, regional and national news. The Canadian Media Guild (CWA Canada Local 30213) said the report recognizes that the CBC is underfunded compared to public broadcasters in other countries and that its mandate is to provide programming in English, French and Indigenous languages across six time zones. The network receives $29 per capita in public funds while its counterparts in the U.K. and France get $105 and $73 respectively. “Like many Canadians, the union representing workers at CBC/Radio-Canada has long called for better funding,” said CMG President Carmel Smyth. “CBC is the largest news organization in the country, and it provides a crucial public service that Canadians appreciate for quality news and local programming. This is especially critical today when the internet is full of unverified fake news that divides us and damages healthy debate and our democratic tradition.” Kim Trynacity, [...]