The Trudeau government has released the list of organizations that will sit on a special advisory panel tasked with spending 600 million dollars ear marked for media bailouts.
The organizations are: News Media Canada, the Association de la presse francophone, the Quebec Community Newspaper Association, the National Ethnic Press and Media Council of Canada, the Canadian Association of Journalists, the Fédération professionnelle des journalistes du Québec, Unifor, and the Fédération nationale des communications.
Andrew Coyne pointed out in a prophetic November 2018 article in the National Post, that this bailout will “irrevocably politicize the press.”
Broken down, there are eight organizations in total on the advisory panel. Two are unions and six are industry insider groups. Four are Francophone. There is zero representation of independent media. How exactly is this an “independent” panel if there is no independent representation?
https://twitter.com/jandrewpotter/status/1131222906967601152
Some organizations on the panel, like Unifor, shamelessly display their partisanship on social media for all Canadians to see.
As we’ve said before, the Trudeau government is in no position to declare which newspapers and websites are considered “reliable.” The fact that the entire panel is made of media insiders and unions confirms that this assertion was correct.
In fact, this special advisory panel is an insult to independent journalists and all Canadians.
