Tuesday, September 25, 2007

Why Do They Hate Us? The CRTC that is.

My question for the day is what exactly does the CRTC (Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission) have against Canada?

According to the Broadcasting Act of 1991 which, in part, created the CRTC:
"the Canadian broadcasting system, operating primarily in the English and French languages and comprising public, private and community elements, makes use of radio frequencies that are public property and provides, through its programming, a public service essential to the maintenance and enhancement of national identity and cultural sovereignty;"
Yet the CRTC seems derermined that as few voices as possible be heard within that system.

  • First they along with the Heritage Committee and the Harper Government allowed cable broadcasters to sabotage the Canadian television fund

  • Then they allowed an unprecedented amount of media consolidation

  • They passed rules that encourage the importing of American programming over original, home grown programming, and allowed even more commercials.

  • They've forced people to sue them in order to get hearings that they are legally entitled to.


  • And now they are threatening to kill public access television altogether. So what is it exactly that the Harper Government and the CRTC have against the Canadian public and Canadian voices? Hopefully we can find out before they pass judgement on Net Neutrality. It has become abundantly clear though that "the public interest" is no longer something they are interested in and "the public airwaves" aren't seen that way anymore.

    2 comments:

    Eric Rosenhek said...

    There's a lot of back door action going on. It's very sad. I think they're just paranoid and want something more status quo then something that's daring and takes risks.

    I guess public broadcasters are hard on the conservatives. In turn, the conservatives put their own in charge of the CRTC to punish the public.

    Dwight Williams said...

    Not something I wish to endure as a member of that same public. You can be sure of that much, at the least.