Blais makes statement on alleged CTV news interference

CRTC Chairman Jean-Pierre Blais on Wednesday issued a statement warning about the seriousness of "manipulating news coverage" in the wake of a report that a prominent BCE Inc. executive did just that last week. The Globe and Mail reported Wednesday that Bell Media president Kevin Crull directed staff at its CTV News operation not to show footage of Blais following the commission's decision Thursday on TV-channel unbundling. The story said Blais had an interview on BNN, also owned by Bell Media, shortly after the afternoon announcement on Thursday, which said TV service providers would have to start offering a skinny basic TV packages next year for no more than $25 a month and providing customers the option of picking all their other channels individually. According to the report, Crull told CTV News president Wendy Freeman not to show any further footage of Blais that day. CRTC spokeswoman Patricia Valladao told The Wire Report that Blais had an interview scheduled for CTV's Power Play that afternoon that was cancelled at the last minute. She said no reason was given, though "the producer seemed to be surprised." Later Wednesday, Blais said in a statement that "the allegation ... that the largest communication company in Canada is manipulating news coverage is disturbing," and that any complaints on the issue should be sent to the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council. "An informed citizenry cannot be sacrificed for a company's commercial interests. Canadians can only wonder how many times corporate interests may have been placed ahead of the fair and balanced news reporting they expect from their broadcasting system," Blais added. Broadcasting consultant Peter Miller said in an email that he's “not aware of there ever being an incidence like this of a broadcaster being accused of skewing coverage of the CRTC, and the CRTC wading in on the question of journalistic independence.” The Globe story said that later on Thursday evening, CTV Ottawa bureau chief Robert Fife, chief anchor Lisa LaFlamme and Freeman collectively decided to defy Crull's order and showed clips of Blais on the 11 p.m. national news. Crull later issued his own statement, describing the situation as follows: “I reached out to the CTV News leadership team to let them know I felt the focus on the CRTC itself by CTV and other Canadian news organizations would be better placed on a broad and necessary discussion of the impacts of the CRTC’s decisions on consumers, our team members and our business.” He added: “It was wrong of me to be anything but absolutely clear that editorial control always rests with the news team. I have apologized to the team directly for this mistake. Indeed, their strong and straightforward reaction to my intrusion only heightens my appreciation of their independence, integrity and professionalism.” Bell is fighting two decisions by the CRTC at the Federal Court of Appeal. One ruled against the legality of not treating Bell's mobile TV services as regular data when used by its customers, and another banned the use of simultaneous substitution for the Super Bowl starting in 2017. — With reporting by Derek Abma at dabma@thewirereport.ca and Anja Karadeglija at akarad@thewirereport.ca and editing by Peter Henderson at phenderson@thewirereport.ca

Blais makes statement on alleged CTV news interference

News | March 25, 2015

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Blais makes statement on alleged CTV news interference

News | March 25, 2015

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