World Press Freedom Canada president Heather Bakken appeared before the Senate Transport and Communications committee on Nov. 19 to contribute to its study on Local services provided by CBC/Radio-Canada. Her opening testimony is below.
Thank you Chair and committee members.
I would like to be clear that my remarks today reflect my experience with the CBC’s English services only.
I am the president of World Press Freedom Canada, which has a mission to advocate for and defend our Charter Right to a Free Press and issues that affect press freedom globally.
My professional experience as a journalist included 16 years at CBC News on both sides of the camera, and five years in the private sector, including as publisher for two political news sites.
In this capacity, there are three points I would like to touch on today:
CBC’s position with its bureaucratic masters.
Its broken business model.
Its role in preserving our sovereignty.
As the CBC stands today, we are dealing with a Frankenstein. One part is the CRTC which determines licencing requirements for a five-year term. The other part is the government which determines its mandate and annual budget.
These mismatched parts put the corporation in the untenable position of being told what it must do without being told how to get there, and not knowing what resources the following year will bring.
Instability has an impact on morale, and on the programming and products that you read, see and hear.
This Frankenstein also includes a TV service that is commercial. A digital service which is largely commercial. And a radio service that is a public broadcast model. The CBC can not be all of those things at once.
It’s time to pick a lane. In my view, the best lane is the radio model. CBC Radio One is number one in many major markets – with a loyal audience that includes people of all political stripes.
The corporation’s success overall requires a new mandate— one with stable, predictable, long-term funding that allows it to function with neither fear nor favour, and removes it from economic competition with private broadcasters, and other digital platforms.
In other words, it’s time for the CBC to get out of advertising and get back to public broadcasting. I believe this is fundamental to Canada’s future.
CBC North delivers news to remote northern communities in eight Indigenous languages. As is the case in many other places, it is the sole source of news and information. During an emergency — it provides a lifeline.
The service was created during the Cold War to provide Canadian content to radio listeners who could more readily hear broadcasts from Radio Moscow and the Voice of America.
Today, that infrastructure plays a role in our Sovereignty.
Russia and the US are currently making territorial claims against us in the Arctic. But CBC Transmitters, which have been there for decades, are among the pieces of evidence that bolster our claims.
The border dispute is an attack on our Sovereignty from the outside. Inside, we are being attacked by a global disinformation network that is polluting our information ecosystem with false promises and false flags. This could have a profound impact on public opinion – and our very future as a Democracy.
While WE are debating whether our public broadcaster should be defunded, the Kremlin has doubled down on re-funding propaganda campaigns.
This coincides with the loss of local media creating vast news desserts across the country. But Nature abhors a vacuum. Online influence peddlers are being paid to astroturf our people and our communities.
The information space has changed dramatically since the CBC was created in 1936. But it has evolved at warp speed since smart phones became ubiquitous. Without any guardrails, our adversaries are leveraging our openness and accessibility to define the narratives they want us to believe. In the absence of any substantive policy, they have found a way into the consciousness of Canadians.
We have our OWN story to tell.
For national unity to prevail we need a public broadcaster that serves as a bulwark against disinformation; one that will strengthen the democratic values and freedoms we have fought for, shed blood for and should continue to go to bat for.
Our centre of gravity is local communities. We need to re-engage with people who have felt unheard. And CBC Town Halls are fit for purpose.
Public broadcasting must be viewed as a reliable source of news, as well as a platform for a national dialogue that keeps one end of the country informed about what the other end thinks and is doing.
The CBC is Canada’s most trusted news source.
Canada needs a national network that is locally rooted in the regions with stable funding — and is commercial free. The CBC is uniquely positioned to provide that service. It has the infrastructure. It has scale. And no other organization can do it.
The CBC is worth saving. It is critical to our sovereignty. And we must find a way to make it work.
Thank you.
View her testimony here.
