Freedom of the press

World Press Freedom Day: our rights in Canada

Topics:
3

Arnold Amber – May 3, 2012

Today marks World Press Freedom Day. On this day, countries all around the world, from Burma, to Egypt, to Venezuela, are fighting to establish this fundamental cornerstone of democracy. These countries are not taking these crucial freedoms for granted.

But in Canada, a country most assume already has an unfettered press—how should we mark World Press Freedom Day? If we value press freedom, we all need to take a closer look at the state of these rights here at home. When we look beyond the words of the Charter to the daily reality for working journalists, we see a gradual erosion of freedoms. And our government is a contributing factor.

Ground-breaking journalism needs confidential sources

Topics:
0

Sylvia Stead – April 24, 2012

Most original, ground-breaking journalism done in this country depends on confidential sources. While we focus on new media platforms, better presentation, video and more, the heart of the most memorable content comes from sources.

It starts with a strong beat reporter, someone who knows the key newsmakers, the politicians, the business leaders, medical professionals, police, lawyers and others. A good beat reporter demonstrates to those people behind the news that they can be trusted and that they are interested in telling accurate and complete stories.

Political cartoonists risk death, injury to shine light on life

Topics:
0

Peggy Curran – April 6, 2012

For political cartoonists, the pen really is mightier than the sword - even when that sword might be used against them. It happens.

On a war-torn street in the Middle East or a tranquil neighbourhood in northern Europe, a satirical sketch can get you killed, maimed or sent to prison.

Mexican journalist wins battle against deportation

Topics:
3

David P. Ball – April 9, 2012

Surrey resident Karla Berenice García Ramírez – an award-winning Mexican journalist facing deportation after Canada rejected her family's refugee appeal – has won her years-long battle for asylum here, the Vancouver Observer has learned.

The whistleblower on government corruption, who fled Mexico after she and her family received numerous death threats because of her reporting, was granted permanent residence last week on humanitarian and compassionate grounds.

Obama targets journalists

Topics:
0

Jesselyn Raddack – April 9, 2012

For two years I have been writing about the criminalization of whistleblowing, or as Glenn Greenwald has put it more aptly, the “war on whistleblowers.”  I’m an attorney with the Government Accountability Project, the nation’s leading whistleblower organization.

How did I get into this line of work?  Because I myself was a whistleblower when I worked as a Legal Advisor at the Justice Department and blew the whistle when my advice not to interrogate “American Taliban” John Walker Lindh without an attorney (and, parenthetically, not to torture him) was ignored and then “disappeared” from the file in contravention of a federal court discovery order.

Scientists and journalists call on Harper to end gag order

Topics:
4

Douglas Quan – February 17, 2012

Groups representing scientists and science writers sent an open letter to Prime Minister Stephen Harper on Friday calling on his government to stop "muzzling" federal researchers.

Attendees at the American Association for the Advancement of Science's annual conference heard numerous examples of alleged government interference and reporters being denied timely access to scientists.

Slovak court bans book about political corruption

Topics:
0

February 6, 2012

A Slovak court has banned a book about alleged high-level political corruption written by investigative journalist Tom Nicholson prior to its publication.

In a ruling issued in early February the court ordered Nicholson's publisher, Petit Press, which also publishes The Slovak Spectator, to desist from publishing the book or any other documents based on the so-called Gorilla file, a document which contains transcripts purporting to originate from conversations covertly recorded by the country’s SIS intelligence service between 2005 and 2006.

Writers want Ottawa to let scientists ‘speak for themselves’

Topics:
0

Mark Hume – January 22, 2012

Last year, Kathryn O’Hara, then president of the Canadian Science Writers’ Association, wrote an extraordinary letter to Prime Minister Stephen Harper and the leaders of the other national parties.

In that document – remarkable because it was written in a leading democracy not a paranoid dictatorship – she pleaded with government to unshackle its scientists by allowing them to speak freely with the media.

Bureaucratic roadblocks frustrate access to court files

Topics:
3

Dean Jobb – January 31, 2012

“The administration of justice,” Justice Morris Fish wrote in the Supreme Court of Canada’s ruling in Toronto Star Newspapers Ltd. v. Ontario(2005 SCC 41), “thrives on exposure to light – and withers under a cloud of secrecy.”

His words bear repeating, for the many court officials out there who are still not getting the message. “The administration of justice thrives on exposure to light – and withers under a cloud of secrecy.”

What happens in Canada’s courts is open to public and media scrutiny, and Justice Fish’s pronouncement is one of the more recent in a series of precedents that endorse the long-standing principle that justice must be seen to be done.

Mexican whistleblower journalist's statement to the media

Topics:
3

January 21, 2012

Award-winning Mexican journalist and now whistleblower Karla Berenice García Ramírez, who writes under the penname Karla Lottini, fears for the safety of herself and her family – including her two young Canadian born daughters – as she awaits deportation orders.

In a packed press conference on Thursday January 19, 2012 she made the following statement to the press:

Syndicate content