OTTAWA – A news report about an animal seizure included “biased and editorialized material” contrary to the codes of ethics of the Canadian Association of Broadcasters and the Radio-Television Digital News Association, the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council (CBSC) ruled Wednesday.
The organization examined a news report broadcast on CJSB-FM (CJ 104, Swan River, Manitoba) and the manner in which the station responded to subsequent complainants by viewers. The report was a follow-up to an on-going story about a man who had been charged with animal abuse and had his animals seized by authorities.
It said that the Swan Valley Animal Protection League (SVAPL), the group that was taking care of the animals, had requested additional money from the local government to cover the costs of spaying pregnant female dogs. It also pointed out that some puppies had been aborted and others had frozen to death when left outside with no shelter. The report concluded with comments that the forced termination of pregnancies and the freezing death of puppies did not seem to be compatible with the SVAPL’s mandate of promoting animal rights as an extension of human rights, and that the accused man had not been charged with “killing even a single puppy”.
The CBSC said that it received “numerous complaints” about this report. The broadcaster, who said that the complaints seemed to be the result of a Facebook campaign, sent the same response letter to all complainants, with the names and e-mail addresses visible.
The CBSC’s Prairie Regional Panel concluded that the news report was biased because it “suggested a certain level of malice in the actions of the SVAPL” and had implied that the SVAPL’s actions were worse than those for which the man had been accused. The Panel found violations of Clause 5 of the CAB Code of Ethics and Article 1 of the RTDNA Code of Ethics.
The Panel also said that it was “inappropriate” for the broadcaster to have provided complainants’ full names and e-mail addresses to all complainants and that, in future, such an action by any broadcaster will be viewed as a violation of its CBSC membership requirements of responsiveness.
