Ottawa, February 22, 1994 – The Ontario Regional Council of the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council (CBSC) today released its decision concerning a news report aired on May 17, 1993 on CFTO-TV.
The Council considered a complaint from a CFTO-TV viewer, who felt that the station’s news report on an American study concerning air pollution was “shameful and irresponsible”. In response, the station simply sent the viewer a transcript of the news report and advised the complainant that he could contact the Council if he wanted to take his complaint further, but CFTO-TV did not respond at all to the substance of the viewer’s concerns.
According to Council members, the news report did not breach the Canadian Association of Broadcasters (CAB) Code of Ethics, clause 6 (news), which deals with bias, editorializing, and the proper presentation of news, opinion, comment and editorial. Council members did, however, agree that the broadcaster’s response to the viewer was dismissive, and that CFTO-TV had failed in its responsibility to adhere to CBSC standards of responsiveness. As a result, the Council issued a decision against CFTO-TV. The station is required to announce the Council’s decision during prime time within 30 days.
The Ontario Regional Council of the CBSC includes representatives of the general public and of the broadcasting industry. The Chair of the Regional Council is a public representative, Marianne Barrie. The Vice-Chair, a broadcaster, is Al MacKay. The other public members are Susan Fish and Robert Stanbury, while the other broadcaster members are Don Luzzi and Paul Fockler. All Regional Council members participated in this unanimous decision.
Created in 1990 by the CAB to provide Canada’s private sector broadcasters with a means of self-regulation, the CBSC administers three CAB codes: the Code of Ethics, the Sex-Role Portrayal Code, and the recently-revised Voluntary Code Regarding Violence in Television Programming. Since November, 1993, it has also administered the Code of Ethics of the Radio Television News Directors Association.
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For more information, please contact the National Chair of the CBSC, Ronald I. Cohen, at (###) ###-####.