News Room

CBC local plan overdue - but will it die on the vine?

November 30, 2006

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Toronto – Expansion of CBC local services is long overdue, but the news plan announced by CBC this afternoon raises serious questions - and may well die on the vine with the overhaul of CBC senior management that is only months away, according to the media watchdog group FRIENDS of Canadian Broadcasting.

"All Canadians should have access to CBC programs in their communities wherever they live. But what CBC announced today sounds more like a plan to limit diversity of voices in the news by amalgamating newsrooms, while expanding local supper hour television news programs without any new resources. In any case, only when Mr. Rabinovitch is replaced as President will we know if this plan will be implemented by his successor," said FRIENDS' spokesperson Ian Morrison.

While the plan announced by CBC today to cancel Canada Now and replace it with 60-minute supper hour TV news programs across the country based on a pilot being developed in Vancouver, these programs will not be ready to roll out until about the time when Mr. Rabinovitch's term expires.

"We see this as a deathbed repentance by Mr. Rabinovitch, who set out to gut CBC Television's regional programming, in spite of CRTC direction to strengthen CBC in the regions, immediately after he was first appointed," said Morrison, who also noted that CBC Radio has reduced its local programming under Rabinovitch.

Only a storm of protest on Parliament Hill and across the country over plans to cancel the supper-hour television news programs in 16 Canadian cities forced Mr. Rabinovitch to back down. Still, Mr. Rabinovitch crippled CBC English Television's supper-hour news, losing almost two hundred thousand viewers as a result, and cancelling late evening regional newscasts altogether.

The CBC also announced today its intention to consolidate radio and television newsrooms across the country.

"We are concerned that the common set of editorial priorities that determine the news CBC delivers across all its platforms will mean fewer voices and perspectives on CBC news," Morrison said.

"Only time will tell if this plan is to be taken seriously. Once Mr. Rabinovitch has been replaced, the tenure of his hand-picked head of English TV, Richard Stursberg, may be fragile. Only when Mr. Rabinovitch has been replaced will it be possible to judge the viability of today's plan," Morrison concluded.

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For information: Jim Thompson 613-447-9592