Canadian politicians condemn Russian shuttering of CBC Moscow bureau

Canadian politicians were quick to condemn Russia’s move to close the CBC/Radio-Canada’s bureau in Moscow in retaliation for the removal of RT, the state-sponsored Russian network, from Canada’s airwaves. The CRTC removed the Russian network in March. CBC said 10 employees, both Canadian and Russian nationals, were affected by the decision. “Obviously, the truth, responsible journalism, sharing what’s actually going on with citizens, is a deep threat to Vladimir Putin and his illegal war and his authoritarian tendencies,” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told reporters Wednesday in a pre-Question Period scrum, according to a transcription. “Canada will always stand up for a free, strong independent press doing its work of challenging and revealing what’s going on in the world. It’s unfortunate, but not surprising, that he’s trying to shut down strong journalistic institutions.” Minister of Canadian Heritage Pablo Rodriguez echoed his boss’s sentiments. “I would say it's a desperate attempt by Putin to keep hiding what's really happening on the pitch,” Rodriguez said Wednesday in French at a pre-caucus scrum with reporters according to a translation. The minister pointed out the differences in process between Canada and Russia when it comes to handling media companies. “What is fundamental to see here is the difference between the two. In Canada, it's not the government, it's not me, it's not a minister who made the decision,” he stated, speaking to reporters in French. “It was the CRTC that consulted a ton of Canadians, rendered a decision of almost 7,000 words on this. In Russia, it's just the minister who says oops, we kick all the journalists out. A fundamental difference between the two.” Later on Wednesday CRTC chair Ian Scott explained the process by which RT was eliminated from Canada’s broadcasting system. He told the House of Commons Heritage committee that the government requested the commission investigate. It did, receiving many submissions from the public, before deciding to drop RT from broadcast distribution undertakings. “But the circumstances were very clear and the weight of the evidence told us that it was in fact not consistent with the objectives of the Broadcasting Act and therefore they were removed from the authorized distribution list,” he told MPs. Asked later about the general regime for dropping any contentious network from the authorized list, Scott said the CRTC does not licence foreign networks as other nations do, but merely approves their carriage on the authorized distribution list. “That has been a relatively rare occurrence but it is increasingly a concern and we do have the ability, as we just did, and typically it would be driven by a complaint from the public or an enterprise—a person in a legal sense—registering a complaint and then we would examine it and determine whether the matter needed action, and got comment and ultimately render a decision,” the chair stated. Rodriguez made the same point during his Wednesday remarks.. “This is a totally independent based decision by the CRTC, by the regulator that has been regulating broadcasting for the last 50 years,” the minister said in English. “They're experts on the field. They consulted and they explained exactly why they made the decision. That's the way we do things in Canada. On the other side, they just made a decision like that. But Canada, who have a public, like network, right? They, it's a state-based network. It's very different, it's totally different.” –Reporting by Paul Park at ppark@thewirereport.ca and editing by Michael Lee-Murphy at mleemurphy@thewirereport.ca

Canadian politicians condemn Russian shuttering of CBC Moscow bureau

Broadcast | May 19, 2022

Unlock all the Canadian telecom, broadcasting and digital media news you need.

FREE TRIAL

SUBSCRIBE

Inside The Wire Report

Information

Hill Times Publishing

Get in Touch With Us

Canadian politicians condemn Russian shuttering of CBC Moscow bureau

Broadcast | May 19, 2022

Unlock all the Canadian telecom, broadcasting and digital media news you need.

FREE TRIAL

SUBSCRIBE

Related Stories

Heritage Committee urges changes to bonuses for CBC executives

Incoming CBC head non-committal on bonuses as she takes the helm, pledges to listen to Canadians

CBC expands local news programming following Google news act exemption

Marie-Philippe Bouchard to take over from Catherine Tait at CBC

Reuse & Permissions

Inside The Wire Report

Information

Hill Times Publishing

Get in Touch With Us