CRTC approves Al Jazeera for Canadian viewers

[Scoobie Newbie]

http://sympaticomsn.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/1089894102595_32?hub=topstories

CTV.ca News Staff

Canadians will soon be able to watch Al Jazeera television, after the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission approved it for distribution in Canada Thursday.

The Al Jazeera application was filed by the Canadian Cable Television Association in spring 2003, and includes numerous other "ethnic services" from around the world.

Each of the elements was decided independently.

In all, the CRTC approved nine new non-Canadian, third-language networks -- including ones featuring Spanish, German and Romanian programming -- while six were denied.

Among those rejected was Italy's RAI International. Despite the support of more than 100,000 Canadians who signed petitions, the RAI application faced opposition from the Toronto-based Telelatino, which currently broadcasts about 50 hours per week of programming from RAI.

The application to offer the Qatar-based Al Jazeera through Canada's direct-to-home satellite networks was contested by the Canadian Jewish Congress and other groups, which said it disseminates "anti-Semitic hate speech."

Al Jazeera is often referred to as the "CNN of the Arab world" and is often the first to broadcast messages and videotaped statements from militants in Iraq and belonging to al Qaeda.

In its ruling the CRTC said distributors of Al-Jazeera in Canada will be required to guard against the broadcast of "any abusive comment." That could mean the editing or deleting of some content.

 

[Lance Wiebe]

The CRTC is a joke.

The allow the "CNN of the Arab world", and disallow Fox News?

Just goes to show what those appointed over-paid CRTC decision makers consider priorities for us peons.

I know!  We should can the CRTC.  Replace it with anyone that can demonstrate an iota of common sense...

 

[loyalcana]

The CRTC is a joke.

The allow the "CNN of the Arab world", and disallow Fox News?

Just goes to show what those appointed over-paid CRTC decision makers consider priorities for us peons.

I know!   We should can the CRTC.   Replace it with anyone that can demonstrate an iota of common sense...

Fox news has a license to broadcast in Canada and I believe they had it for sometime.

 

[wongskc]

The CRTC denied Fox News?  I saw a CRTC document that had approved it.  Give me some time to see if I can find it again.

 

[Bert]

Another perspective may be similar to "keep your friends close but keep your enemies closer".  By no means do I think
Al-Jazeera or the popluations around the world are enemies, but it offers a different perspective on news and events
from a hostile part of the world.  Everything we see in the news is based upon WHAT is happening.  The WHY its
happening and the historical context is left out of the general news (CNN, AL-Jazeera, CBC, etc) and it helps to pave
the way for sensationalism and bias.  Al Jazeera's reporting might prove interesting.  Theres enough primary and
secondary reporting in Canada to compare Al-Jazeera's facts and biases.

Organizations like the CRTC are farther from politics than the government and closer to the government that it avoids
pressure from specific lobby groups due to its own beauocracy.  It will watch Al-Jazeera and Canadian reactions as it
should.

 

[Fruss]

The CRTC is just a real big fat joke!!!  They just closed CHOI-FM in Quebec city..  the only station that promote people to exercise, don't smoke and try to prevent suicide..  It was the #1 radio station in Qc City..  now, you cannot have an opinion on the air anymore??

Where are we going??

Did I mentionned that I used to work for that radio station when I was back east..  I though I'd let you know.. 

BTW, closing this station put about 45 hard working person to the street!!!

 

[Redeye]

The CRTC is a joke.

The allow the "CNN of the Arab world", and disallow Fox News?

Just goes to show what those appointed over-paid CRTC decision makers consider priorities for us peons.

I know!   We should can the CRTC.   Replace it with anyone that can demonstrate an iota of common sense...

Why would you want to watch Fox News?  It's like The National Enquirer televised! It drives me nuts when I go to the states to see the kind of slant and ignorance that they pass off as journalism.  Even if CNN has some discernable leanings, at least they give some appearance of balance.  Fox News' "fair and balanced" reporting can only be called that because it's balanced from the extreme right to the moderate right, and that's it.

 

[tabernac]

What's so bad about CBC? I don't see anything wrong...

 

[Redeye]

My disapproval of anything to do with the CRTC has a lot more to do with the fact that I believe in freedom of expression than anything else.  I don't need the government to tell me what I can and can't watch.  Most of the time, if I want a decent report of news, I'll try to catch the BBC World Service because they're generally reasonably fair in presentation, and moreover, seem to have more commentators with some idea of what they're reporting on.  Having al-Jazeera on TV in Canada is fine with me - anyone who wants their viewpoint can get it easily enough anyhow, since they publish on the internet.  A lot of what they say is fairly slanted and extremist, but in a lot of ways, so is every other news source.  The only way to really make a decision on what's right is to weigh out every available version and then synthesize an interpretation of your own.  Anyone who blindly follows one source is nothing but a sheep.  Look at all the dittohead-types in the US, as a prime example - they'll blindly agree with whatever hypocritical rubbish spewed by Rush Limbaugh they hear, without ever giving it a critical thought.

As for the Italians who were mad that RAI didn't get a license, I understand their annoyance and don't see why there has to CRTC approval for it - but it's not like al-Jazeera was picked over RAI - they (as far as I know) don't have a finite number of licenses they can issue.

 

[Sheerin]

As mentioned in the article RAI was refused becuase of TLN...

I'm fine with Al-Jazera being licensed, hell, if I were able to understand it I'd probably watch it (i'm a bit of a news junkie!). 

I'm acutally quite sickened that CHOI is not having its license renewed.  I don't necessairly agree with what the radio personalties were saying (albeit,i've only seen the worse that was printed in the globe and mail) but if it bothers you,why can't you change the station or better yet turn off the radio???  Same thing for those people who complain about Howard Stern, don't listen to him!!!!


I'm sorry, but the CRTC should not have the right to revoke licenses becuase of content. 

 

[Bert]

The line between acceptable freedom of expression and unacceptable freedom of expression and measures to enforce
both are always contentious.  Usually CRTC licenses are extremely well put together documents with input from
all parties involved.  If the CRTC is withdrawing a license, its not on a whim.  At least something is legally argueable
if the CRTC revokes a license.  I don't know the full story on CHOI, but for some reason that may not be completely
disclosed publically yet, CHOI may not be operating under the terms of the license.  Al-Jazeera would have to abide by
similar terms in the CRTC licensing process or pop goes its possible future license in Canada.

 

[SFontaine]

What's so bad about CBC? I don't see anything wrong...

Ahahaahahahahahahahahaa.

Dude.. When sovereignty was handed over to Iraq I switched to CBC to see how they were spinning it and I learned that the early handover was a "panic move" because "everything was going wrong in Iraq"

 

[Lance Wiebe]

The CRTC has twice refused Fox News a license to operate in Canada.  Their rationale was theat we already have an US all news station (CNN).

The fact that CNN, CBC News, and CTV News are all left wing, and are extremely biased in their views seem to mean nothing.

Closing CHOI-FM and allowing Howard Stern is another comparison.

Now we will have two anti-Israel networks, Al Jazera and CBC.

It is obvious to me, that the CRTC is also biased in their leanings.

 

[Gunnar]

CTV news is biased to the left?  That's where I get the most up to date, real news when I need an antidote to the CBC and their ilk.  Are you sure?  CTV is usually the first to post military stories, and often posts those hard to find stories about what Canadians actually did in Afghanistan today, as opposed to the CBC who would rather we had no military at all, and sent a troop of social workers with teddy bears to Afghanistan.

 

[Infanteer]

Seeing how anyone can get satellite or use the internet to find the news sources they want, I don't think there is too much worry in what the CRTC does.  If someone wants to find something, there a plenty of unregulated sources to find them that the average Canadian has access to.

 

[Firepower]

Yeah I'm with Gunnar on this one. The CBC, which gets our tax money to cover news that is important to Canada, wouldn't even air the documentary of our troops in Afghanistan(which is excellnt by the way).


http://www.cda-cdai.ca/Munro_%20Award/rmaspeech_pritchard.htm

Veteran documentary producer Garth Pritchard, who filmed the aftermath of the infamous "friendly fire" bombing in Afghanistan, accused the CBC last night of betraying its mandate to tell Canadians of their soldiers' heroics overseas.

"The national broadcaster has totally misled Canadians and abandoned its mandate to tell the story of what our military is accomplishing in places such as Afghanistan,"....

An if you watch the crawler at the bottom of the screen on CTVNewsnet, you often catch small stories about our troops over seas. Example: Soldiers injured when the Halon gas system went off in their LAV, didn't see anything on the CBC about that, or on their website.

 

[mclipper]

I was reading in the paper this morning that Shaw Cable has said they are not going to carry Al Jazeera.  They said that the cost of having someone monintor the station 24 hours a day is not worth it.  I wonder how many other cable providers are going to say the same thing?  Maybe none of them will carry it.

 

[Bert]

I don't agree with all CRTC rulings, amendments, and licensing processes.  Yet if you've ever sat in a public meeting or been
involved in a CRTC licensing processes, you'd know they consider many things and not just content.  If the CRTC rejected Fox's
news channel, I'd like to know the real context behind the decision.  

You should know too Lance that every news service has bias; the bias of the process, the bias of the reporter, the bias of
the interviewees, the bias of the viewer, etc.  At 18:00, most Canadians are not looking for indepth contextual stories but
headlines and whats happening around the world in 20 minutes.  YOu can't provide a total context in that timeframe.
CTV's news is primarily headline based and CBC Newsworld provides additional contextual and socials stories.  The BBC
has a different funding base and associations with other news gatherers and broadcasters including CBC and CTV and is
able to prepare more extensive services.  CTV and CBC just don't have the funding to be as extensive and can't provide
the same service (pay for foreign reporting operations, analysts, and news gathering).  You'll notice CBC contracts BBC's
news coverage and thats for a reason.  

Personally, I don't known how left CBC or CTV leans.  One can say that western media (North American and European)
is leftist in general, particularily in the US.  I generally like to get my news (the news that really interests me) from
several sources to get a better context for whats happening.  Relying on anything for a complete and total picture
of an event makes for a narrow perspective.

 

[Cloud Cover]

reference Fox News: it is available on Rogers in SW Ont.... did anybody catch the interview on the "The Current" on CBC radio this morning? The Canadian Broadcast Standards Council doesn't think any of the cable  carriers will want to carry the channel, as the CRTC wants the carrier to police the content. The CBSC says this will be impossible, therefore any breaches of ss. 318-319 of the CCC.will have to be dealt with after the commission of the offence. These offences are "full fault" or subjective mens rea offences, which means that Al Jazeera would be allowed to make full answer and defence of Islamic fundamentalism in a Canadian court of law. If this occurs,and they are successful, this will have serious implications on Canadian anti-terrorism legislation-  it may prove impossbile to prosecute on other terrorism related offences. As a lawyer, I can tell you that it would be a mistake to think for a minute that the DoJ has not thought this through, and reached the same conclusion. However, in my personal opinion, they are not intervening for public policy reasons. [i.e. political sensitivity/vulnerability to a prospective electorate in a minority government] Comments?       

 

[Bert]

Interesting.  There are inclusive areas between public security and broadcast mandate.

I'm not a viewer of Al-Jazeera but from my understanding, Al-Jazeera isn't a supporter of Islamic
fundalmentalism per se.  They have been criticized for broadcasting inappropriate material like
dead bodies, captured soldiers, focusing on anti-American events, any possible
Bin Laden video or audio tape, being a point of message distribution, and criticzing other
governments and their actions in the region.  Its been suggested Al-Qaeda could
embed messages in tapes provided to Al-Jazeera.

If Al-Jazeera was given a chance to pursue broadcast in Canada, the news network would
have to go through CRTC public hearings and licensing processes like any other broadcaster.
This is a first in Canada of this nature and likely get extra scrutiny. 

The government would have to tighten up laws and directives relating to the CRTC
and public security providing a more definite demarcation between offences of
broadcast mandate and offences that are in the public security domain.  This may
not be a bad thing.

I agree that if the carrier is responsible for content of Al-Jazeera they certainly wouldn't
want this on their systems.  It is impossible to monitor it in-progress, decide on censorship,
provide alternate programming, and take heat for the CRTC after the fact.  This costs
money, manpower, and time.  There are other ways of pre-distribution to the cable
carriers but likely no one will want to pay for it. 

In a way this is kind of funny.  Anyone who has been through a CTRC licensing process
understands all the crap, talking, waiting, discussion of content, distribution, business
cases, legalities, funding, adherences, market to audience, etc.  If Al-Jazeera could
get through all this with CRTC approval, then I'd say its an option.