CDM Disappointed in CRTC Rejection of Community Television Proposal

CDM Disappointed in CRTC Rejection of Community Television Proposal

Decision Highlights Weaknesses in CRTC Policy

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Vancouver, March 24, 2008: The Campaign for Democratic Media (CDM) is disappointed in the CRTC’s recent decision to deny an application by the Community Media Education Society (C.M.E.S.). The application proposed the creation of a community television channel to serve fourteen communities in British Columbia and Alberta.

The decision highlights some of the inadequacies of current CRTC policy. One major issue relates to funding. C.M.E.S. had asked for funding for their project to come from the $80 million annual community channel levy, monies paid by Canadian cable subscribers to cable companies in trust to be used for community access programming. The CRTC currently allows this levy to be distributed to large media corporations, but in their decision, stated their unwillingness to direct funds towards smaller non-profits such as C.M.E.S. Michael Lithgow, Steering Committee Member of CDM, states: “These public monies are meant to provide funding to community programming initiatives. Canadians should benefit from this policy not cable companies. The C.M.E.S. project was developed and driven by community members and was focused on creating local programming. Given the number of interventions in support of the C.M.E.S. project, it is clear that the citizens in those communities saw the benefits of having a local channel as well”.

The CRTC decision also demonstrates its misunderstanding of community broadcasting. The CRTC cited C.M.E.S.’s reliance on volunteers, one of the organizations self-stated strengths, as being insufficient to manage the project. The C.M.E.S. project, by very design, is meant to be volunteer-driven in order to provide public access to television with only a small number of part-time paid staff on hand to provide training. The CRTC on the other hand, wants to see more paid staff as is customary in for-profit media groups.

The final reason for rejecting the project was because the CRTC deemed the project as being insufficiently local. Programming would be produced in all fourteen communities intended on being served, with the remaining balance of shows being produced in Calgary or Vancouver. As each local community could not have a completely locally produced schedule, the application was deemed as being inadequate.

“It’s disappointing to see a locally created project meant to provide public access to the media rejected on the same basis,” Lithgow says. “The C.M.E.S. project could have added some much needed diversity to our media system. It shows that there is still much need for media policy reform in this country”.

Campaign for Democratic Media! is a national, non-profit, non-partisan media reform network working to increase informed public participation in Canadian media policy formation. They strive to generate policies that will produce a more competitive diverse and public service-oriented, media system with a strong non-profit and non-commercial sector.




Contact:

Steve Anderson

National Coordinator

Campaign For Democratic Media

[email protected]

Phone:(604) 837-5730