Broadcasters must continue to report on cultural diversity: CRTC

The Canadian Association of Broadcasters (CAB) is praising the CRTC’s response to its Report of the Task Force for Cultural Diversity on Television, despite the fact that the regulator declined to follow the recommendation that private broadcasters no longer be required to file reports to it on cultural diversity. The CAB filed the report after the commission ordered it to undertake such a study. The CRTC did, however, commend the best practices approach advocated in the report. The CAB states that its members are already working to ensure that the best practices and industry initiatives outlined in the report are undertaken in a timely manner. Below is an excerpt from the commission’s response. …The commission considers the work of the task force to be an essential component of its diversity strategy for mainstream television. The task force was charged with responsibility for identifying areas of concern, and developing industry-wide solutions to the specific challenges faced by individual broadcasters and to the larger challenges faced by the industry as a whole in ensuring equitable presence, accurate portrayal and full participation of Canada’s ethnocultural and Aboriginal diversity. Recommendations to the commission As noted above, the task force made two recommendations to the commission. They were as follows: The task force recommends that, in order to measure progress in the reflection and portrayal of cultural diversity on Canadian television, the CRTC initiate a research study on cultural diversity in television programming content in three to four years time dating from May-June 2003, e.g., during the 2006-07 television season. In recognition of broadcasters’ commitment to the implementation of the task force’s recommended best practices, the CRTC should relieve individual broadcast licensees from current reporting requirements relating to their individual corporate plans on cultural diversity. The commission’s response …According to the research, Aboriginal peoples are “persistently invisibilized by the media and continue to be one of the most misrepresented and stereotyped groups in Canada.” As highlighted by the task force, in virtually all areas of programming, Aboriginal peoples filled less than 1% of all speaking roles. As the task force also noted, without APTN, Aboriginal peoples would be excluded from TV screens. The commission emphasizes that APTN’s presence and performance in meeting its mandate does not diminish the important responsibility that private broadcasters have to incorporate the stories, voices, perspectives and experiences of Aboriginal Canadians into the programming they broadcast. Another serious systemic problem identified by the task force is the significant under-representation on screen of Canadians of Asian descent, including those of Chinese, Vietnamese, Filipino and Korean background. In the commission’s view, the research shows that significant work towards diversifying Canadian private television remains, given the weaknesses in all areas of English-language programming and in most French-language programming, especially in the areas cited above. The commission considers that improvements are overdue in both English- and French-language news, as well as in English-language drama. Moreover, given the invisibility of Aboriginal peoples and the significant under-representation of Asian Canadians, the commission considers these to be serious issues of concern for the entire broadcasting industry. Annual reporting …Most broadcasters are still in the initial stages of implementing their corporate plans. The annual reporting by broadcasters on their progress towards meeting commitments contained in their corporate plans is the key mechanism the commission has to measure such progress and, ultimately, to ensure that it occurs. In the commission’s view, in light of the serious problems identified by the research, it is important that broadcasters continue to report to the CRTC and the public to demonstrate that progress is, in fact, being made.

Broadcasters must continue to report on cultural diversity: CRTC

Broadcast | March 29, 2005

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