MONTREAL – Employees at BCE will soon adhere to a new code of conduct designed to “enhance protection of journalistic independence” as the company continues to grapple with fallout from last month’s allegations that former Bell Media president Kevin Crull interfered with CTV’s news coverage of a CRTC decision.
In announcing Crull’s subsequent departure from Bell Media on April 9, president and CEO George Cope said that the independence of the company’s news operations “is of paramount importance to our company”, and that “there can be no doubt that Bell will always uphold the journalistic standards that have made CTV the most trusted brand in Canadian news”.
BCE revealed Thursday that Cope requested that a committee of the board of directors be formed to review journalistic independence at CTV News. Comprised of committee chair Paul Weiss (also chair of the BCE audit committee), Astral Media co-founder Ian Greenberg, BCE chair Thomas O'Neill and directors Robert Simmonds and Carole Taylor, the committee delivered its report to the board this week.
The committee recommended a policy “enhancing the independence of the President of CTV News, and to enhance protection of journalistic independence in the Bell Code of Conduct, which is applicable to all BCE employees.”
