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TORONTO –Unifor is available to respond to the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission’s ruling, expected this week, to award the coveted license (BNOC 2018-127) for a national, multilingual multi-ethnic television service offering news and information programming.
The long-term broadcasting license under section 9(1)h of the Broadcasting Act will go to one of eight applicants for a national television service to meet the needs of Canada’s largest third-language and multi-ethnic communities. The service will be part of each cable operator’s basic TV package and will be supported by a mandatory subscriber fee that, depending on the proposal that is accepted, will double the current 12 cents per month levy charged by the incumbent licensee Rogers’ OMNI TV.
In Unifor’s appearance before the Commission in November 2018, the union advocated for six crucial licensing considerations:
- At least 30 minutes of original daily news produced in at least six languages. The 30 minutes shall not include current affairs “talk shows.”
- News that is predominantly local or regional.
- Staffing by a sufficient in-house corps of TV journalists (reporters, camera operators, videographers, editors) to cover stories important to the third language communities under licence.
- To satisfy Parliament’s mandate in section 3(d) of the Broadcasting Act and in view of the mandatory subscriber fees supporting the enterprise, the Commission must impose a fair employment policy including industry-standard compensation and a prohibition on sub-contracting to underpaid contractors.
- Mission must ensure editorial independence from parent ownership and tight restrictions on overlap with that ownership's mainstream media products (e.g. City TV, CTV News, CBC feeds, hockey games).
- As a matter of governance structure, the licensee must appoint an editorial board of at least five members, the majority of whom shall not be employees of the licensee or any related company, and the process of soliciting and appointing the board shall be publicly transparent. The Board members will be expected to have television editorial experience. This Editorial Board is to be separate and distinct from community advisory councils. The licensee must appoint a senior editorial manager whose editorial judgment shall be exercised independently and who can only be dismissed by the editorial board.
Unifor is Canada’s largest private sector trade union representing 315,000 Canadians in 20 major industrial sectors, including 12,000 in the media sector. OMNI TV employees at the broadcaster’s two largest locations, Toronto and Vancouver, are represented by Unifor locals 723M and 830M. Unifor is a long time policy advocate on various media issues, especially local news. View our video testimonials posted at https://www.journalismis.ca , two of which feature OMNI reporters Tina Song and Prabhjot Kahlon.
For more information, please contact Unifor Communications National Representative Christina Mitonidis at @email or at 647-327-9371 (cell).
