OTTAWA – While complaints from Canadian TV viewers or radio listeners continued to flow in at a rate of about 2,000 yearly (7.6 per business day), there were 125 decisions in the broadcast year 2005-05, says the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council annual report, released today.
That’s an increase of 22.4% over the 102 decisions from a year prior.
The Annual Report also provides statistical information about the complaints, an analysis of matters dealt with in the summary decisions, summaries of the formal Panel decisions, as well as details of the CBSC’s activities in the ethnocultural area.
In 2004-05, the split between television and radio programming complaints was 75%-25%. The regional breakdown for complaints not classified as national was Ontario (39%), Quebec (33%), British Columbia (15%), the Prairies (12%) and the Atlantic provinces (2%). The leading areas of complaints were, in television, news and public affairs (25%) and, in radio, open line or other forms of “informal discourse” (69%). “It’s been an extremely active year, one that indicates that Canadians who have concerns about anything they have seen or heard on television or radio know that private broadcasters provide them with an avenue for resolution of those concerns,” said CBSC national chair Ron Cohen.
