Radio-Canada announced it will amend its new code of conduct to remove the requirement that the state broadcaster’s journalists support ministers in their accountability to Parliament and Canadians
“We realize this issue caused a lot of reaction on the part of our journalists, in the media in general, as well as in the general population,” CBC president Hubert Lacroix wrote in a 5/4 memo to employees.
The union representing the French CBC’s communications workers filed a grievance last month, objecting to the requirement that employees serve the public interest by “loyally carrying out the lawful decisions of their leaders and supporting ministers in their accountability to Parliament and Canadians,” reports Canoe.ca.
Bloc Quebecois MP Jean-Francois Fortin complained that the code of conduct “reek[ed] of totalitarianism…How can the government justify the fact that it is secretly trying to make CBC the new Pravda? I am asking the government to allow CBC to maintain its independence,” Fortin said in the House of Commons last week.
