American media companies face accusations of self-censorship and legal cowardice as they confront a new term for President-elect Donald Trump, who has targeted the press as an enemy. Washington Post editorial cartoonist Ann Telnaes resigned in early January after the paper’s editors spiked her cartoon showing media owners and tech billionaires genuflecting to Trump. The […]
Read MoreCourts and governments across Canada tightened the noose around transparency last year, making it harder for journalists and other civil society actors to hold governments to account. Last February, the Supreme Court of Canada upheld a decision by the Ontario government to withhold ministerial mandate letters as cabinet secrets. CBC had been denied the letters in […]
Read MoreJournalists who don’t toe the MAGA line have long been among Donald Trump’s favourite targets. His election victory on Nov. 5 heralds a new era of media bashing, with efforts to silence independent voices and attacks on journalists themselves. In the waning days of the campaign, Trump frequently targeted the “fake media” at his rallies. […]
Read MoreEach year at our annual luncheon, World Press Freedom Canada director Guy Badeaux (pen name: Bado) announces the winner of our international editorial cartoonist contest, which celebrates the journalists who illustrate the state of the world through pictures, metaphors and snappy lines. Editorial cartoons are the soul of a newspaper, anchoring the editorial pages with […]
Read MoreThere appears to be no end to the rocky road of broadcast news in Canada. Shrinking newsrooms have been a feature of the media landscape in Canada for the past two decades but the decline has accelerated in recent years. The trend leaves Canadians increasingly ill-served by major corporations that own broadcasting networks but see […]
Read MoreNational Defence has long been a rogue institution in complying with the Access to Information Act. Its secretive practices are especially concerning after DND officials issued a controversial statement on the Gaza War and then flouted the law by refusing to deal with a journalist’s request for information on how they reached their conclusions. The […]
Read MoreIn the three years since the fall of Kabul, the Taliban government has smothered Afghanistan’s once thriving media with censorship and intimidation.To mark the August 15 anniversary, Toronto-based Journalists for Human Rights (JHR) released a report by former Afghani journalist Mujtaba Haris that describes the crackdown on journalists and especially female ones. Haris’s report paints […]
Read MoreInstead of taking a summer vacation, many journalists were given a permanent break from their jobs as media executives blamed shrinking audiences for the downsizing. The ongoing decline in the industry leaves a shrinking pool of journalists to inform the public on public-interest issues and to hold powerful interests to account. Some small markets have […]
Read MoreOn the night of May 3, Niagara Falls was bathed in a spectacular multi-coloured light show to recognize World Press Freedom Day. The Falls Illumination Board was one of several landmarks and 29 municipalities that shone the colours, issued proclamations or raised the United Nations’ flag to recognize the importance of press freedom. The campaign […]
Read MoreFor years, government media-relations staff have resorted to a dodge that allows them to evade awkward questions from journalists. “For that information, you’ll have to make a request under access to information,” they routinely say. Never mind that the federal act explicitly says the ATI system is “not intended to limit in any way access […]
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