Ottawa, April 12, 2000 -- The Canadian Broadcast Standards Council (CBSC) today announces the appointment of Mark Oldfield, Manager of News and Information Programming for MCTV (CTV’s owned and operated “mini-network” serving Sudbury, Timmins, North Bay and Sault Ste. Marie), to its Ontario Regional Council.
Mr. Oldfield has worked in almost every aspect of broadcast journalism over more than 20 years. In addition to writing, reporting and producing news stories, he has served as News Director, taught journalism and continues in that role as a part of CTV National News’ in-house training team. His essay “Building Better Television News Stories” is a part of every issue of the Broadcast News Style Guide and is used in journalism schools across Canada. He is also associated with the Radio and Television News Directors Association of Canada (RTNDA), the Cambrian College Journalism Advisory Committee and the CTV Journalist Policy Committee. Once separated from his professional responsibilities, Mark’s personal passion is astronomy and his astrophotography has appeared in several major astronomical magazines.
Ron Cohen, the CBSC’s National Chair, said: “The appointment of Mark Oldfield to the Ontario Regional Council underscores the great importance to the CBSC of the close ties between the CBSC and the RTNDA. The CBSC has been privileged to administer the RTNDA Code of (Journalistic) Ethics since October 1993. That Code has been a significant guidepost to Canadian newsrooms since 1970 and its role as a CBSC Code has enabled the Council to make it far better known to the public. The value of Mark Oldfield’s experience and insights will, as with other RTNDA members of CBSC Regional Councils, be appreciated in all fields of CBSC radio and television programming assessment.”
Robert Stanbury, a public member, is the Chair of the Ontario Regional Council and Paul Fockler, a broadcast representative, is its Vice-Chair. Sandra Whiting is a public member and Madeline Ziniak is the other industry member. There is currently one public member vacancy on the Ontario Council.
Canada’s private broadcasters have themselves created industry standards in the form of Codes on ethics, gender portrayal and television violence by which they expect the members of their profession will abide. In 1990, they also created the CBSC, which is the self-regulatory body with the responsibility of administering those professional broadcast Codes, as well as the Code dealing with journalistic practices first created by the Radio Television News Directors Association of Canada (RTNDA) in 1970. More than 430 radio and television stations and specialty services from across Canada are members of the Council.
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All CBSC decisions, Codes, links to members’ and other web sites, and related information are available on the World Wide Web at www.cbsc.ca. For more information, please contact the National Chair of the CBSC, Ron Cohen, at (###) ###-####.