Celebrate World Press Freedom Day?
This week we observed World Press Freedom Day in Canada. I’m not sure if we can actually celebrate this annual day in any jurisdiction in Canada or around the globe. Sure we can mark the day, observe the day, mourn the loss of some 87 international media workers who died last year; but celebrate may be a stretch for those who follow the challenges journalists face everyday in Canada and throughout the world.
As a member of the Canadian Committee for World Press Freedom, I thought that the luncheon we organized today was able to raise the issue, but then again we were only speaking with the converted, like minded people, journalists and communications types who already get it.
Sure, many in Canada think that we enjoy a society where the press operate without hindrances and threats of the type that we envision in other less developed countries. In those places we see the tight grip of totalitarian dictators, police forces or military juntas out of control. In Canada, the greatest threat to press freedom in not from these, but from the judiciary and the litigious class. Canadian journalists surely face stonewalling governments, secretive corporations and lying criminals. And these are serious threats to a free press, but today these are superseded by an aggressive judiciary that at times appears out of control.
Today at our annual luncheon our committee presented Daniel Leblanc of The Globe and Mail with the 11th annual Press Freedom Award. Daniel was nominated by his newspaper for his willingness to risk judicial censure for protecting a confidential source in Canada’s notorious sponsorship scandal. He may go to jail over this. Another court action against Leblanc now prevents him or any news outlet from reporting on the involvement of the company Group Polygon and their possible role in the scandal that even a full public inquiry and a decade-long investigation by the RCMP have failed to really get to the bottom of.
Our committee also wanted to acknowledge two lawyers Brian Macleod Rogers and Paul Schabas for their outstanding contributions to press freedom in Canada in this past year and over the course of their careers. These guys do great work on behalf of press freedoms and often are not paid for their important work.
Another one of our nominees was the Montreal Gazette’s reporter William Marsden, who was nominated for his investigative work that uncovered a land deal involving the husband of Pauline Marois the powerful leader of the Parti Québécois. Marsden’s work has also been stifled by court actions that prevent him or his paper from reporting on this case.
Maybe next year as we observe this important day we should invite some judges to the luncheon.
