OTTAWA – The Canadian Association of Community Television Users and Stations (CACTUS) and the Fédération des télévisions communautaires autonomes du Québec are now taking applications from community television organizations to hire a journalist under the Local Journalism Initiative.
The LJI was announced by Canadian Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez on May 22 (when he announced the government bailout of large newspapers) and is meant to fund “civic journalism” in “underserved communities”, to address the gaps in local news coverage that have arisen in the wake of community newspaper closures, and the outflow of local ad dollars onto international platforms such as Google and Facebook, reads the CACTUS press release.
According to the LJI web site, “civic journalism covers the activities of the country’s civic institutions (for example, courthouses, city halls, band councils, school boards, federal Parliament or provincial legislatures) or subjects of public importance to society.” Coverage of sports, arts, and entertainment will not be funded.
Both CACTUS and the Fédération are mandated organizations under the LJI program.
The content produced with LJI funding will be made available to media outlets across the country free of charge under a Creative Commons License.
“CACTUS will disperse funds to not-for-profit community TV organizations that have the capacity to produce video and television content, and to distribute it to their local communities,” said CACTUS' executive director Catherine Edwards, in its press release.
“They must also have a mandate and capacity to train and include citizens and local organizations in the production process. Our hope is that hosting LJI journalists will not only boost the news production of these organizations for the 18 months of the pilot project, but build their capacity for the long haul.”
The funding is especially welcome news for the sector, adds the CACTUS release. “After several years of meetings with the federal government regarding the continuing relevance of community media to Canadian democracy, the Local Journalism Initiative is the first federal funding program that reaffirms the sector's importance in the digital environment. The sector has been overlooked in recent years, under previous government initiatives to increase funding for the CBC, or to support private-sector news organizations,” it reads.
CACTUS and Fédération members include licensed organizations whose content is distributed free to air, on cable, on satellite, and on the Internet, as well as unlicensed not-for-profit corporations that distribute video over the internet and on community channels run by cable companies such as Rogers, Shaw and Videotron.
For more information on the LJI, click here.
Application forms for community television organizations can be downloaded from the CACTUS web site at www.cactusmedia.ca or from the Fédération web site at www.fedetvc.qc.ca.
