By DEAN BEEBY

National 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 latest instance: Globe and Mail reporter Frederik-Xavier D. Plante requested internal military documents assessing the bombing of a hospital in Gaza. The department did not respond within the 30-day legislated window, did not take a time extension, and rebuffed an order from Information Commissioner Caroline Maynard to produce records, saying it will go to court to try to quash the order.

National Defence is a tough portfolio, to be sure, with plenty of military secrets and security procedures to safeguard.

The Gaza-related request, though, hit a hotbutton. In its statement, the department concluded the Israel Defense Forces was not responsible for a strike on a hospital that left at least 100 dead. Both the IDF and Hamas denied responsibility. Plante wanted to know the basis for the DND statement.

The obstinacy is frustrating but hardly surprising. In her most-recent annual report, Maynard said she had issued 32 orders against National Defence.

Maynard has gone to Federal Court three times to ask for a writ of mandamus, that is, a request that a judge order the department to implement her own order. All these wasteful legal skirmishes are being fought with public money.

One problem is that National Defence rotates military members into and out of its access-to-information unit relatively quickly, so there’s little opportunity to build competence. The strict hierarchy of the military fosters a deferential culture, which means there’s not always appropriate pushback by ATIP (Access to Information and Privacy) staff when a higher-ranking officer balks at releasing documents.

So journalists are often left in the lurch, obstructed from informing the public on one of Canada’s highest-spending and most impactful federal institutions. That’s why we know nothing about National Defence’s analysis of that Gaza incident. And why the department is so often free to operate without scrutiny and accountability.

Canadians are concerned about increasing misinformation and disinformation in the media ecosystem, and worry about its impact on democracy, says a poll from Abacus Data conducted for CPAC.

Dean is a WPFC director and authors a newsletter on ATI and transparency.

BY SHAWN MCCARTHY

In 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 a grim picture, and urges the international community to take concrete action to support media freedom in Afghanistan.

Before the takeover, the country benefited from a “vibrant and dynamic media environment, with its wide range of voices and critical reporting,” Harris reported. That all changed after August 2021.

The new regime’s effort to bring media under its control has resulted in more than half of the country’s media outlets shutting down, with women bearing the brunt of the job losses.

“The Taliban’s policies have effectively silenced female voices in the media, depriving them of their right to work and to contribute to the public discourse,” the report noted.

Some journalists have used digital platforms to bypass censorship and access information. Many media workers have fled the country and continue to disseminate information on social media platforms such as YouTube, X and Facebook.

The JHR report is urging the international community to support media freedom in Afghanistan by providing moral, political, and financial support to journalists.

Foreign governments, notably those that are members of the international Media Freedom Coalition, must advocate for the rights of female media professionals and hold the Taliban accountable for the human rights violations perpetrated against the press.

The JHR report concluded that thereis a pressing need to support Afghan journalists in exile, ensuring they can continue their work without fear of persecution.

Shawn is Past President of WPFC.

BY HEATHER BAKKEN, president of World Press Freedom Canada

The U.S. Department of Justice in September unsealed an indictment that identified two Canadians as being at the centre of an alleged Russian-led disinformation campaign, known as Doppelganger, that is targeting the U.S. Presidential elections in November.

Tenet Media – owned by Canadian influencer Lauren Chen and her husband Ian Donovan – is accused in the indictment of being a front for a pro-Kremlin disinformation network.

The Department of Justice alleges that Chen, who has worked for the parent company of Russia Today (RT), was paid nearly $10-million by RT operatives who wanted her to recruit other influencers to cover certain stories and circulate specific content on social media. The indictment says she billed RT through her company Roaming Millennial Inc., which is registered in the Montreal area.

Disinformation is not a new phenomenon, but its scale and sophistication have grown exponentially with the advent of digital media.  It is a means for foreign interests to interfere in domestic politics and undermine the credibility of home-country media and other civic institutions.

The CRTC banned RT and RT France from being distributed by Canadian television service providers in 2022. It concluded the programming was antithetical to the policy objectives of the Broadcasting Act and did not serve the public interest.

The U.S. indictment alleges RT directed Chen to recruit high-profile conservative personalities in 2023 to amplify their campaign to achieve bigger impact. She turned to her friend, fellow Canadian influencer Lauren Southern, who has a YouTube audience of nearly 850K followers and more than half a million followers on Instagram. Southern produced videos for Tenet Media focused on Canada, including one calling this country a ‘communist hellhole.’

The spread of disinformation can have real-world consequences. It can influence elections, sow discord, and incite violence. The allegations against Tenet Media highlight the vulnerability of our own media ecosystem to manipulation by foreign actors.

In Canada, the Public Inquiry into Foreign Interference in Federal Electoral Processes and Democratic institutions resumed hearings in September. The commission concluded in its first report issued in May that state actors, notably China, had interfered in the Canadian political process in 2021 election and affected results in some ridings.

The U.S. indictment is a clarion call for Canada’s media and regulatory bodies to take actions against foreign interference and to increase public awareness on the disinformation tactics used by our adversaries.

One way to safeguard society is to subscribe to reliable news sources. Sharing a common set of facts is a good start towards rebuilding trust with each other.