TORONTO – Seven broadcast journalists will be honoured this spring with lifetime achievement awards presented by RTNDA Canada – The Association of Electronic Journalists.
The seven are Doug Collins, Vicki Gabereau, Vern Coop, Mike McCourt, Tom Young, Dan McLean, and Gord Harris.
The awards will be presented at the RTNDA Regional Pro Dev Seminars in Kamloops on April 26th, in Calgary on May 10th, Fredericton on May 31st, and at the Central Awards Banquet June 19th during the RTNDA National Conference in Ottawa.
“On behalf of RTNDA Canada, let me congratulate these exceptional broadcasters,” said Bob McLaughlin, President of…
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OTTAWA – Saying that “community radio stations will continue contributing to the visibility and vitality of Canada’s minority official-language communities,” the federal government today announced a number of grants totaling $539,471 for a number of French language community radio projects.
Pierre Lemieux, Parliamentary Secretary for Official Languages and Member of Parliament (Glengarry-Prescott-Russell), on behalf Josee Verner, Minister of Canadian Heritage, Status of Women and Official Languages, made the announcement today, the International Day of La Francophonie, in Ottawa.
The funding will, among other things, be used to establish and manage community radio stations
"The Government of Canada knows that…
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VANCOUVER – An amendment to the Federal Income Tax Act that affects the granting of tax credits for Canadian films and television shows is seen by many Canadians as a threat to artistic expression, a new Angus Reid Strategies poll has found.
In the online survey of a representative national sample, almost half (48%) of respondents think Bill C-10 – which would allow the Heritage Minister to grant tax credits only to productions that would “not be contrary to public policy” – should be rejected because it amounts to censorship and jeopardizes artistic freedom in Canada.
Conversely, 36% of…
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TORONTO – The Canadian Television Fund said on Monday that it will provide $275 million to Canadian television producers for the 2008-2009 fiscal year.
Through the Broadcaster Performance Envelope (BPE) system, the CTF will allocate $173 million to English-language broadcaster envelopes and $79 million to French-language broadcaster envelopes.
These funds will support English and French programming in the genres of Drama, Children’s and Youth, Variety & Performing Arts, and Documentaries. The 2008-2009 BPE allocations are listed on the CTF website, www.ctf-fct.ca.
Initiated in 2004, with English Drama being incorporated two years later, the Broadcaster Performance Envelope system “is a…
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TORONTO – The Canadian Broadcasting Corp. on Thursday launched a redesigned website featuring some of its past shows and programs at cbc.ca/archives.
Some 12,000 historic radio and television clips, including some that were never broadcast, can be viewed for free on the website.
For the first time, the new website includes full-length versions of some CBC radio and television shows, including This Hour Has Seven Days, Man Alive, Close Up, Howie Meeker Hockey School along with David Suzuki’s 1975 debut on Quirks and Quarks and Kate Aitken’s eclectic blend of homemaking and interviews with international leaders.
New interactive features…
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LET US BEGIN BY making our position utterly clear. We do not believe that Bill C-327 is either necessary or even moderately useful in dealing with the issue of violence on television.
We have filed a written presentation with the Committee Clerk that will hopefully provide a useful tour d’horizon of the issue. I will try to limit this oral presentation to the clarification of matters raised by witnesses and Hon. Members of this Committee.
First, the nature and extent of the problem, namely, the exposure of our children to violence in the media. Is problematic violent content increasing…
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OTTAWA – CRTC Chair Konrad von Finckenstein has rejected the primary thrust of a private member’s bill to reduce violence on television, saying there is no need for the CRTC to have new powers to regulate the broadcasting of violent acts.
Appearing before the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage Tuesday, von Finckenstein said the existing system, which relies on industry self-regulation backed up by the CRTC as the final arbiter, “does provide an effective means to achieve the desired purpose”.
“We therefore cannot support the provisions of Bill C-327 that call for prescriptive regulation in lieu of industry self-regulation…
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TORONTO – The Directors Guild of Canada (DGC) issued a strongly-worded letter
Thursday, calling upon Canadian Heritage Minister Josée Verner to revoke part of an
omnibus bill now before the Senate that would only allow tax credit support for a film or
television production if the production is not “contrary to public policy”.
“This provision is open to such a wide array of interpretations that it would have a
dampening effect on artistic expression and, of equal if not greater importance, would
discourage investment in an already under-resourced Canadian Film and television
production sector,” said Brian Anthony, the Guild’s…
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TORONTO – ACTRA has blasted the Conservative government over amendments to the omnibus bill C-10 which it says would allow the Canadian Heritage Minister to deny tax credits to film and television products it doesn’t like.
ACTRA National Executive Director Stephen Waddell suggested the Conservative government wants to set itself up “as the country’s morality police” through the proposed measures that would allow it to pull financial aid for any film or television show it believes is not in the public interest. The bill is now before the Senate.
“The government is overstepping its bounds and interfering in an…
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OTTAWA – The CBC has welcomed a report from the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage that recognizes the role of the public broadcaster as an essential institution that requires long-term support and reinforcement.
But there were mixed reviews from ACTRA and words of warning from the Friends of Canadian Broadcasting.
ACTRA said the government already missed a chance in this week’s budget to back up the Committee’s words with money, while the Friends pointed to the dissenting opinion from the Committee’s Conservative minority which it said sets the CBC up to fail.
The majority report, CBC/Radio-Canada: Defining Distinctiveness in…
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