OTTAWA – The financial losses reported by Canwest Global Communications Wednesday should “provoke real concern about the overall crisis in Canada’s media companies” says the Canadian arm of the Communications Workers of America (CWA).
“On a day when Nortel has filed for bankruptcy protection, Canadians have good reason to fear that their daily newspapers and radio and TV stations may also disappear if things continue on this path,” said CWA Canada director Arnold Amber, in a statement.
Claiming there has been little attention given to the “serious pressure on Canada’s news media,” Amber said that recent “significant cuts to operations” at media companies CTVglobemedia, Quebecor and Torstar, can be blamed in part on “a frenzy of media mergers over the last decade”.
“Given the importance of information to the functioning of our society, we should not take this particular crisis lightly,” Amber continued. “We need to start considering new ways to finance the gathering and reporting of news in this country or else our sources of quality information could dry up.”
CWA Canada represents employees at newspaper chains Canwest, Quebecor/Sun and Irving, as well as at public and private broadcasters and news agencies in Canada.
