CanWest breakup no excuse to loosen ownership restrictions: Council of Canadians

The impending breakup of CanWest Global Communications bodes poorly for Canadian media democracy, according to a statement circulated by the Council of Canadians and OpenMedia.ca. The organizations call on the federal government not to use the filing for bankruptcy protection as a pretext for reducing foreign ownership restrictions.

“Following the failed business model already employed by the Aspers and Goldman Sachs in television has been a profound mistake for CanWest,” says Garry Neil, a Council of Canadians board member and cultural policy expert. “It is worrisome that the Aspers might be kept around in order to satisfy ownership rules, possibly just as window dressing to mask a major foreign takeover of Canadian media.”

"We believe that US creditors are already running CanWest, and Canadians should be very concerned that asset sales will undermine Canadian ownership regulations as they did with the Goldman Sachs deal to buy Alliance Atlantis," says Peter Murdoch, Vice President Media of the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union, which represents more than 1,000 media workers at CanWest television stations.

“In looking at the CanWest job losses, the blame can be placed squarely in corporate mismanagement,” says Steve Anderson, coordinator of OpenMedia.ca (formerly the Campaign for Democratic Media). “What is the debt from? Not unprofitable journalism, but rather acquisitions and mergers that were entirely unnecessary, and profoundly unpopular with the public.”

The statement said that foreign ownership restrictions are particularly important to maintaining appropriate regulations in broadcasting, but applies to all media.

“The CanWest crisis highlights how our newspapers are owned by an anonymous group of international investment funds,” says Maude Barlow, national chairperson of the Council of Canadians. “These developments are a very troubling sign for media democracy in Canada.”