AdBusters is before the British Columbia Supreme Court today to defend its right to sue Global, the CBC and the CRTC over Canadian television's refusal to air the organization's public service announcements.
For more than a decade AdBusters has been trying to buy airtime on Canadian television only to be consistently rebuffed. If the court allows the suit to proceed, media rights advocates will claim a genuine victory.
The media broadcast through airwaves that are public property and licensed to individual networks for a term of years. Because they are public property, the CRTC retains authority over the conduct of the broadcasters. The issue seems to be whether the corporate control of the airwaves should be allowed to censor messages those corporations don't like or which may reflect poorly on them.
AdBusters has long campaigned against the growing concentration of media ownership in the hands of a few powerful corporations. Here are some facts it wants you to know:
[1] Canadian Media facts: * Four corporations (CanWest, Quebecor, Torstar and Gesca) control 72 per cent of the country's daily newspaper circulation.* Five major media acquisitions in Canada have occurred or are currently in the making in the past two years: CHUM was purchased by CTVglobemedia for $1.4 billion, which then sold five CityTV stations to Rogers for $375 million; CanWest purchased Alliance Atlantis for $2.3 billion; Astral Media bought Standard Broadcasting for $1.2 billion; and Black Press and Quebecor are vying for the Osprey Media newspaper chain in a deal that will be worth more than $400 million.
[2] Facts about Media Democracy:
* More than 30,000 people have signed the Media Carta
<www.democraticmedia.ca> <www.mediareform.ca> <www.mediademocracy.ca>
1 comment:
You Go, Adbusters!!
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