The Macdonald-Laurier Institute unveiled the Ottawa Declaration on Canadian Journalism, where some of Canada’s independent journalists request the media industry reject the federal government’s subsidies. The Ottawa Declaration came out of MLI’s recent conference about the future of news and journalism in the city. This conference explored the impact of recent Canadian government policy and legislation on the media industry.“A free and independent press able to hold the powerful, including government, to account is an essential feature of Canadian democracy,” said the independent journalists in a Thursday statement. The statement was signed by 11 independent journalists. Some of the signatories include Western Standard publisher Derek Fildebrandt, True North editor-in-chief Andrew Lawton, and Blacklock’s Reporter publisher Holly Doan. The independent journalists said recent federal legislation and regulations could soon see up to half or more of the salaries of journalists and editors working for digital news outlets funded by media subsidies. These subsidies total hundreds of millions of dollars to date and are in addition to the Canadian government’s $1.3 billion direct funding of CBC/Radio-Canada. They said CBC/Radio-Canada employs one-tenth of Canada’s journalists. At the moment, they said subsidization is happening while confidence in the media declines, with 37% of Canadians saying they trust it and less than one-fifth supporting these plans. They called subsidies “a challenge to our democratic process insofar as it raises questions in the public’s mind about the independence of the press, thereby undermining the perceived veracity of reported news.”Because many news outlets are subsidized, they said it “creates an uneven playing field whereby some news outlets, primarily legacy media companies, are able to qualify for government support and others are not, stifling much needed innovation and private investment in the sector.”While they are against media subsidies in general, the journalists said some minority communities might need them to fund their operations because of a lack of a viable market for them. They pass no judgment on these communities. “We encourage other digital news media outlets to sign this declaration and reject the payroll subsidies,” they said.“In trying to ‘save’ journalism, these subsidies damage the independence of the press, stifle much needed innovation and private investment, and fail to rebuild readers', listeners', and viewers' trust in our industry.”The Western Standard qualifies for federal media bailout money, but refuses to accept it.Fildebrandt said at Rebel News Live in 2022 independent media is succeeding because it speaks about important issues. READ MORE: Fildebrandt says independent media growing because it understands people“What we are doing by hyper-regulating and hyper-subsidizing the media is we are just prolonging a dying business model and preventing the emergence of new media that is here to take its place,” said Fildebrandt. “We are subsidizing the candle industry 30 years after the lightbulb became mainstream.”
