QUEBEC CITY – A monitoring committee established by Quebecor Media, and required by the CRTC as a condition of licence, has admonished the company for thrice breaking the rules covering the exchange of information between its various newsrooms.
The committee, set up in 2001 when Quebecor Media received CRTC approval for its takeover of the TVA network, said in a report released Tuesday that TVA’s code of professional conduct “leaves little room for interpretation”.
In order to ensure the independence of TVA’s television newsrooms, the network is “not permitted to receive information from the newspapers of Quebecor Media Inc., or to transmit it, nor to discuss it, except for exceptional reasons justified by the health and safety of the individuals involved”.
But on three occasions between November 2006 and May 2007, photos appeared in the Journal de Québec that came from images filmed by TVA camera operators, it said.
The Journal de Québec is owned by Quebecor Media, as is the Journal de Montréal, TVA, the all-news network LCN, the web-based Canoe portal, Sun Media, and cable provider Videotron.
Given the company’s extensive cross media ownership, the CRTC asked for safeguards to protect the newsroom independence of its television networks.
The committee investigated after receiving complaints from the Canadian Union of Public Employees, which represents locked-out employees of the Journal de Québec. The lock-out began last April 22. Two of the three complaints involve the use of TVA images in the newspaper after the lock-out began.
TVA did not dispute that the exchange of images took place. However, it argued this is “common practice in the world of journalism”, and submitted other examples of exchanges of information, involving among others a competitor, Global TV.
“The exchange of photos, which are accessories to the news and not the news itself, respects fully the spirit of this code [of professional conduct],” TVA said.
The committee said it recognizes that it’s common practice for different media to exchange information. “However, courtesy or not, regarding the exchange of photos or images between TVA and a Quebecor Media newspaper, the code of conduct…must be applied.”
The issue of cross-media ownership and its impact on journalism practices and quality was hotly debated in September when the CRTC held public hearings on the how to protect the diversity of voices in the broadcast media.
Journalist organizations and unions argued that journalists are increasingly required to produce content for various media platforms owned by the same company, which they say results in less diversity of information voices and poorer quality journalism.
Glenn Wanamaker is Cartt.ca’s Quebec Editor.
