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CRTC approves Al Jazeera news network |
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Written by Atara Beck
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Wednesday, 02 December 2009 |
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TORONTO-QATAR – The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) has approved a license for Al Jazeera’s English language news network (AJE) to be broadcast here by digital cable and satellite service providers, it was announced last Thursday.
The decision follows a vigorous campaign on the part of the Qatar-based network to win approval from Canadian regulators.
B’nai Brith Canada, Canadian Jewish Congress (CJC) and Honest Reporting provided comments to CRTC on the issue but they neither supported nor opposed approval for the channel; 40 parties filed comments in opposition; there were 2,600 in favour, according to the CRTC web site.
B’nai Brith Canada had negotiated with Tony Burman, AJE’s managing director and it was agreed that B’nai Brith, along with Canadian Jewish Congress would provide input and monitor the station.
Burman, former editor-in-chief at CBC News, expects that “it’s one of those things where time heals all. My approach, not only with AJE but with the CBC, is to encourage feedback, whether from Jewish or other groups with issues that matter passionately to them,” he told the Jewish Tribune from his home in Doha, Qatar. “I’m eager to hear, particularly as a Canadian.”
Regarding anxiety among some in the Jewish community over the CRTC’s decision, “I totally understand that,” he said. “I respect that. It motivated the meetings I had with CJC and B’nai Brith and I will definitely open an ongoing pipeline with these organizations in the months ahead.”
According to CRTC, Al Jazeera-English “is a 24-hour-a-day, seven-day-a-week English-language international news service currently available in over 100 countries and via the Internet…. Despite concerns expressed by certain parties, there is nothing on the record of the current proceeding that leads the Commission to conclude that AJE would violate Canadian regulations, such as those regarding abusive comment.”
Commissioner Marc Patrone, the lone dissenting voice at CRTC, was not pleased with the decision and expressed doubt that AJE would be much different from its sister station, the Arabic-language Al Jazeera.
“My concern relates to the fact that the issue of ownership did not form any part of my colleagues’ deliberations,” Patrone stated. “In weighing the merits of all foreign services, the regulator should be particularly sensitive to ‘state-owned’ or ‘state-financed’ services originating from nations with radically different attitudes towards freedom of speech and democracy in general.”
Burman was not surprised by the outcome in AJE’s favour. Nevertheless, “I take nothing for granted,” he said. “In the end, I think I expected it would be approved, but I wasn’t complacent. As in life, it ain’t over till it’s over.
“My goal is that AJE will help people better understand the world…a public service,” he said. “I think that will become evident with time,” although the Arabic station “is beyond our mandate.
“As I said to the B’nai Brith group and CJC, I work in an extended family in Doha that collectively feels strongly about this and will do everything we can to ensure our journalism makes the world a better place. We can only deal with our own channel.” |
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Last Updated ( Wednesday, 09 December 2009 )
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