When Stakeholders ‘Report’ the News…

Lloyd Robertson introduces a headline story as a “CRACKDOWN BY CANADIAN AUTHORITIES”.  The Globe and Mail headline reads “CINEMA SWOOP PUTS DENT IN PIRATED MOVIES”. The coverage infers a choreographed police operation involving several arrests.  The story was in fact the arrest of one individual four weeks prior to the headline and that individual was apprehended by theatre staff, sort of like store staff arresting a shoplifter. The story details the first arrest under Bill C-59 the anti-camcorder bill, of a Montreal man in a theatre for camcording a movie but fails to mention the fact that the arrest occured on Oct. 26, a full month before the airing . It was even reported in the Globe and Mail in a one hundred word piece, on November 15, 2007. The reprinting of a two week old story as front page news with imminent changes to copyright legislation is a friegtening example of how media merging can go beyond reporting events and attempt to sway public opinion. The choriography in this story was not by the police but rather by CTV Global Media, using their ability to exagerate a story across several media platforms, in this case television, newspapers and the internet. The problem is this, CTV Global Media are both news agencies and content providers. They have benifitted greatly from their ability to merge media and will benifit greatly from American style repressive copyright legislation.

As a stakeholder in Intellectual Property laws and new copyright legislation I have grave concerns about the accuracy of reports on copyright issues. This report is a classic example of conflict of interest.   That this story was barely worth reporting two weeks ago and is now front page news shows how merged media can use its power to elevate the credibility of questionable stories by presenting them across a broad spectrum of media using a number of personnel (no less than three reporters in this case). The images accompanying the CTV report showed DVDs by the box-load being confiscated and racks of Pirated DVDs, yet no DVDs were involved in this incident since the film was (allegedly) going to be distributed online.
Statistics relating to piracy (copyright) are consistently under researched and misrepresented. The source of most of these statistics are the music and film industries themselves.  I am not aware of any other reporting where this is  the case. CTV / The Globe and Mail do not rely on the Tobacco Industry for their facts on lung Cancer. Most of the statistics that are produced by the Music and Film industries are highly controversial. For example a recent Industry Canada study shows that file sharing has no discernible negative impact on CD sales yet CTV does not cover this. “Montreal was recently identified as the No. 1 city in the world for surreptitious recording in theaters.”  What is the source of this claim?  The MPAA itself estimates that in 2006, New York City theaters were the origin of  20% of pirated movies seized globally and 43% of  the camcorder-source pirated DVDs tracked in the United States. The BBC reported that “77% of pirated movies actually originate from industry insiders and advance screener copies provided to movie reviewers.”   In short, from the USA.
The inclusion of the footage from the film “Dan in Real Life” was unnecessary to the story and gave a free plug to the film, thus benefitting the film industry even more than the exaggerated story itself.  The coverage here bears the stamp of Film Industry advertisement.  

CTV Global Media appear to violate eight articles of the Radio Television News Directors Association of Canada Code of Ethics.

Article One – Accuracy
Broadcast journalists will inform the public in an accurate, comprehensive and fair manner about events and issues of importance.

Article Three – Authenticity
Broadcast journalists will present news and public affairs without distortion. Interviews may be edited provided that the meaning is not changed or misrepresented. Broadcast journalists will not present news that is rehearsed or re-enacted without informing the audience. Newsrooms should take steps to ensure the authenticity of amateur video and audio tape before broadcasting it. Editorials and commentary will be identified as such.

Article Five – Independence
Independence is a fundamental value and we will resist any attempts at censorship that would erode it. Broadcast journalists will resist pressures to change or alter the news. Intrusion into content, real or apparent, should be resisted.

Article Five A – Integrity
Producers of news broadcasts will not pay subjects or sources that have a vested interest in a story. Commentators or contracted experts are exempted. Broadcast journalists will not accept financial compensation from those who seek to influence news coverage thereby compromising journalistic integrity and independence.

Article Six – Conflict of Interest
Broadcast journalists will govern themselves on and off the job in such a way as to avoid conflict of interest, real or apparent.

Article Seven – Corrections
Errors will be quickly acknowledged and publicly corrected.

Article Twelve – Impediments
Broadcast journalists will seek to remove any impediments to or bans on the gathering or reporting of news in the public interest.

Article Thirteen – Sources
Broadcast journalists will make every effort to attribute news on the record. Confidential sources should be used only when it is clearly in the public interest to gather or convey important information or when a person providing information might be harmed.

Article Fourteen – Respect and Enforcement
Members of the RTNDA will respect the provisions of this Code and the RTNDA itself will take all reasonable steps to encourage that all broadcast journalists in Canada are aware of and observe the Code, even if they are not themselves members of the RTNDA.

Neither I nor anyone I know, condones piracy, however the story of bill C-59 is not the story of piracy but one of hijacking; of hijacking due democratic process, of fast tracking, of unethical relations between Ministers, bureaucrats and lobbyists, of tailoring legislation to suit corporate interests and devastating Canadian culture to appease American interests.   None of these are apparently as newsworthy as a man in a theater with a video camera.  I will be posting this letter on the Appropriation Art website under the heading “When stake-holders report the news…..”

In light of this coverage l, a letter of complaint has been forwarded to CTV Globe Media and a formal complaint sent to the Radio Television News Directors Association of Canada Code of Ethics. As a stakeholder and news agency CTV Globe Media appears to use its media resources to misrepresent stories, presumably for its own gain An ominous example of what happens when stakeholders ‘report’ the news…