A complete version of this column appeared in Dean’s newsletter. The Liberal government has finally got around to asking ordinary Canadians how to fix the country’s premier transparency law, the Access to Information Act. But it’s hard to have confidence that the government will embrace real reform. The Act requires a thorough “review” of the […]
Read MoreWhen police arrested photojournalist Amber Bracken while she was documenting a protest in northern British Columbia, they didn’t just detain a reporter — they set the stage for a major test of press freedom in Canada. The Narwhal and photojournalist Amber Bracken were in court in January to press their suit against the RCMP over […]
Read MoreThe newspaper industry should brace for more challenges in the coming year, as other media players rush to fill the void left by a shrinking industry. The warning came in November from Statistics Canada which reports on the financial health of the newspaper industry. A multi-decade decline in revenue has resulted in newsroom job losses, […]
Read MoreStudent journalists across Canada are increasingly facing delays, ghosting, and centralized message control from universities and student unions, raising concerns for the future of press freedom and the learned practices of the next generation of Canadian reporters. “Sometimes we’re waiting on emails for too long and then the story withers on the vine,” said Thai […]
Read MoreThe Canadian Association of Journalists, the University of King’s College, and the Canadian Media Lawyers Association have launched Lawyers for Reporters Canada, a new initiative offering pro bono legal services to support journalists and protect press freedom amid rising legal threats. The program will connect newsrooms with volunteer lawyers for services such as pre-publication review, […]
Read MoreThe FBI executed a rare search warrant at the home of Washington Post reporter Hannah Natanson, seizing her devices as part of an investigation into a government contractor accused of unlawfully retaining classified materials, though Natanson is not accused of wrongdoing. The search, along with a subpoena served on The Post, has sparked serious First […]
Read MoreNew federal statistics show a sharp decline in Canadians’ use of the Access to Information Act, with requests falling by more than a third over two years, even as government spending on processing requests hit a record $118 million. Service has worsened, with legal deadlines missed more than 35 per cent of the time and […]
Read MoreWestern democracies, long considered bastions of press freedom, are no longer immune to the coercive pressures once associated only with authoritarian regimes. Freedom of the press in the West is not collapsing suddenly; it is eroding systematically. Pressure on journalists is coming from many sides – from populist leaders who brand them as enemies of […]
Read MoreAI may offer cash-strapped newsrooms “an infinite amount of interns,” but those digital interns — like real ones — will need close supervision and rigorous fact-checking, a leading Canadian AI researcher told attendees on Parliament Hill. Hugo Larochelle, scientific director at Mila, Canada’s largest AI research institute, gave the keynote at AI & The Press: […]
Read MoreCanadian media companies have to re-imagine how they gather, produce and disseminate news in order to remain relevant and viable in the age of Artificial Intelligence, AI expert Nikita Roy told the WPFC symposium. Roy was part of a panel on AI in the Newsroom: Promise and Peril. She is a data scientist, Knight Ridder […]
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