Ottawa, January 25, 2005 -- Ronald Cohen, National Chair of the CBSC, announces the appointment of John MacNab as its new Executive Director.
Mr. MacNab, who has recently been called to the Bar of Ontario, is a graduate of the Faculty of Law of Queen’s University. He has also obtained a Master’s degree from the Faculty of Canadian Studies of Carleton University and Bachelor of Arts degrees from both McGill University (Political Science and History) and Concordia University (Geography) in Montreal. John articled at the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission in 2003-04 and was working as a freelance legal writer until December 2004.
“As the new Executive Director, and with his broad background in cultural, political and social issues, John MacNab will play a significant role in maintaining and expanding those services,” said CBSC National Chair Ron Cohen. John’s appointment follows the departure of Ann Mainville-Neeson, who has served as Executive Director of the CBSC since February 1998. She is joining Telus, where she will be Senior Regulatory Legal Counsel.
The Council’s decisions responding to issues raised by the public about broadcast content are widely known as fair, balanced and responsive. The Council has also been extremely active in getting its message out to Canada’s great multicultural diversity, providing information about private broadcaster codes and the self-regulatory process in more than 30 languages both in print and on its web site.
John MacNab can be reached at: 613-233-4607 (phone), 613-233-4826 (fax), jmacnab@cbsc.ca and P.O. Box 3265, Station D, Ottawa, Ontario K1P 6H8.
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 550 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 CBSC’s website at www.cbsc.ca. For more information, please contact the CBSC National Chair, Mme Andrée Noël CBSC Executive Director, John MacNab