WHO COULD BLAME CANADIAN lawyer Richard Warman for taking a shot with the CRTC last week? What would you do if someone used the web to threaten to kill you, or urge others to do it? Use as many tools as might be at your disposal to protect yourself, I should think.
As you may have read in a number of media reports over the past few days, an Virginia man, Bill White, has called for the Ottawa man’s death (and the death of all Jews, for that matter) and even posted his home address, too, in case someone…
Continue Reading
OTTAWA – Since Canadian broadcasters may be dramatically affected by some of the recommendations in the Telecom Policy Review Report published earlier this year, the Canadian Association of Broadcasters has petitioned Industry Canada for formal talks.
A letter sent August 10 and released Friday says: "The CAB strongly recommends that Industry Canada undertake formal consultations with Canada’s private broadcasters before acting upon any recommendations that would have a direct or indirect impact on the operations of broadcasters and/or the achievement of Canada’s broadcasting policy objectives. We would also recommend that Canadian Heritage be involved in the policy discussions."…
Continue Reading
MONTREAL – Canadian communication policy has shifted. New media are no longer new. Convergence has come and gone and even come again. Policy makers are chipping away at facet after facet of the emerging networked mediascape.
But what role should Canadian communication researchers play in this policy environment? How can their work inform, influence, and shift the agendas of policymakers in Canadian jurisdictions? Should it at all? And just whose work is at issue, as a new generation of communications researchers, activists, and decision-makers begins to take its place in Canadian institutions?
Questions like these are a growing part…
Continue Reading
THE OVERFLOWING TOILET THAT was the endless stream of negative commentary last week on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation was more than a little unseemly and ultimately, absolutely confusing to the average Canadian.
A letter to the editor last Thursday from Gerry Nicholls, vice-president of the National Citizens Coalition, in just 107 words, perfectly illustrated the paradoxical critical firestorm of the last seven days when he criticized the Corp. both for trying a show that might produce big ratings and for producing shows "nobody wants to watch," he wrote.
Talk about sucking a blowing at the same time. His solution…
Continue Reading
GATINEAU – The CRTC has awarded a controversial FM frequency to Aboriginal Voices Radio Inc. in Vancouver.
The group was awarded a licence in 2001 but was denied the use of 90.9 MHz because it “did not constitute the best possible use of that frequency,” the commission stated. AVR was asked to propose another frequency, and it asked to use 106.3 MHz.
However, many community members opposed it, saying it would interfere with the signal coming on 106.5 FM from KLYN in Lynden, Wa., which is receivable in the Vancouver area. KLYN is known as Praise 106.5 and is…
Continue Reading
BANFF – The Banff World Television Festival is the place to be heard.
Although the pitch sessions, the keynote address and the behind-the-scenes deal making is a major part of the conference, it will not be what we remember most about these past few days in June.
It appears this, the 27th year of the annual conference, is where people went to make substantial announcements.
In a mere few days, we’ve seen the Bev Oda, Minister of Canadian Heritage and Status of Women announce the government will ask the CRTC to study the technological changes facing the broadcast industry…
Continue Reading
BANFF – Canadian industry execs filling the halls at the Banff World Television Festival told Cartt.ca they welcome CRTC review of conventional television and the request from the Heritage Minister Beverley Oda to study the technological changes facing the broadcast industry.
“We want a little freedom,” says Phil Lind, vice-chairman, Rogers Communications.
“We have been shackled to death with regulation over the years, and we want to break out of that somehow. We’ve got to realize that people just don’t really understand all of these arcane rules and regulations that have been developed in the ’60s, ’70s and ’80s,…
Continue Reading
TORONTO – Industry Canada and Heritage Canada will work together when it comes to telecom and media policy, Industry Minister Maxime Bernier said today.
Since many of those working in the telecom and cable side of the industry would like to see a more holistic approach to regulation, rather than maintaining two different silos of telecom and broadcast rules, Cartt.ca asked the Minister if he will be working with Heritage Minister Bev Oda on new combined policy directives for the CRTC, given her own new tasks she has set out for commissioners?
"Yes we are working very closely," said…
Continue Reading
BANFF – In her speech launching the 2006 Banff International Television Conference on Sunday, Bev Oda, Minister of Canadian Heritage and Status of Women, announced the government will ask the CRTC to study the technological changes facing the broadcast industry and throws her support behind sustaining our public broadcaster.
“Other nations began to build the policy framework for the new digital world decades ago,” says the Minister. “Unfortunately, Canada did not.”
“Without a doubt,” she adds, “there are challenges.”
“With the arrival of new technologies, the growth of the private sector and the virtual explosion of choice on our…
Continue Reading
BANFF – The CRTC has a new task ahead of it now: predict the future.
During her speech at the Banff World Television Festival today, Bev Oda, Minister of Canadian Heritage and Status of Women, said the Federal Government will ask the CRTC to study "how continuing technological changes are expected to shape the entire broadcasting industry in the years ahead."
Oda is using Section 15 of the Broadcasting Act, which lets the government request that the CRTC hold hearings or report on issues that fall under the Commission’s jurisdiction.
"With the arrival of new technologies, the growth of…
Continue Reading
