OTTAWA – A radio station’s failure to respond to a complaint violates CBSC membership rules.
The Canadian Broadcast Standards Council today released its decision concerning the failure of CHWO-AM (AM740, Oakville) to respond to a listener who had made a complaint to the CBSC.
All CBSC broadcaster members are required to respond directly to audience members who file complaints with the CBSC.
“It is fundamental to the CBSC process that the Council always forwards complaints it receives from a member of the public to the broadcaster in question. Because the CBSC considers that direct dialogue between a complainant and a broadcaster is the best means of resolving a concern, it is equally fundamental to the process that the broadcaster reply directly to the complainant. It is also a cornerstone of the CBSC’s complaints-resolution process. Nearly 80% of the complaints received by the CBSC are resolved as a result of this dialogue,” says the release.
In this case, the CBSC received a complaint from a listener who felt that an episode of the opinion segment Durant’s World was discriminatory against Catholics. Host Bob Durant stated his position in favour of same-sex marriage and mentioned that he had left the Catholic Church because of its stance on the issue.
The Ontario Regional Panel concluded that the segment did not violate the Canadian Association of Broadcasters’ (CAB) Code of Ethics because it was an opinion on a political issue rather than an abusive attack on Catholics.
CHWO was asked repeatedly to respond to the complainant’s concerns and continually failed to do so. The Panel, therefore, found the broadcaster in violation of a fundamental membership responsibility.
