Live Coverage
The Law and Ethics of Investigative Journalism
All day conference on the law and ethics of investigative journalism featuring: Harvey Cashore, Dominique Payette, Linden MacIntyre, and more
- Good morning! We're getting ready for the first panel talk today:
Meet the press
What does freedom of the press mean, and what does it add to freedom of expression? Who is a member of “the press” today, and who decides that question: journalists, courts, or legislatures? Should bloggers, tweeters and others be considered journalists?
Moderator: KATHY ENGLISH, Public Editor, The Toronto Star
Panellists:
MICHAEL GEIST, Canada Research Chair in Internet and E-Commerce Law, University of Ottawa, Faculty of Law
DOMINIQUE PAYETTE, Professeure agrégée, Départment d’information et de communication, Université de Laval
IVOR SHAPIRO, Chair, Ryerson University School of Journalism - English: These issues are much debated in Canada right now ... It's kind of heating up. I would suggest the lighting rod for this is a report out of Quebec that suggests distinct professional status for journalists and binding journalists to a code of ethics. I think we need to say from the start that the proposal has been much misunderstood and maligned ... We're lucky to begin our day with the source of information herself: Dominque Payette.
- This is the first time Payette has spoken about this in Ontario
- Payette: Who is a journalist you ask yourself? Please allow me to contextualize this project: The mission was vast. The question both complex and sensitive
- Payette: The report was exceptionally well-received
in Quebec - Payette: Let me present our assessment of the general state of news in Quebec ... this is not a universal project. We have to say from the outset that the concentration of media ownership in Quebec is a problem.
- Payette: We have seen that no gov't has seen intervention necessary or possible.
- What tools do we have? Propose new coherent contract between journalists and government, and between journalists and employers. "With no surprise employers are not so hot on the idea"
- Payette says part of source of crisis is sense advertisers don't want "general" news. In other words: public interest news, such as investigative journalism. Financing for this type of news no longer comes from advertising. For the past 100 years, she says, it worked: everyone made money and journalists could have ambitious projects published. But today, advertisers want targets, and have dropped out of general news game that does not meet such criteria.
- As a result, this content -- public interest news -- is dropping, she says.
- Payette says producers of information increasingly provide their content for free. Without some rather strong state intervention the production of original, focused, regional news will fade. In Quebec, she says, regional and local news is dying out -- don't have dailies in small regions like we do in Ontario, and rest of Canada
- For those that believe news is a commercial product, like any other, this may be nothing serious. But studies have shown news plays a role in society, for instance, in political debate, she says.
- As for original and local news in particular, serves as a mortar for civic involvement, she adds.
- Great gaps in spread of information in Quebec
, she says. Not everyone has access to same technology. For instance: access to broadband. - Two big questions: How to preserve separation of state and media? How to ensure public funding supports public news?
- Under her proposed structure, Payette says journalists would make the rules -- not government. If journalists were granted professional status, it would make it easier for the public to determine who is a journalist, she adds.
It would also provide vehicle to demand better employment conditions. - It's important to differentiate between a title and a professional body, which would require the entire industry to only hire "professional" journalists, which the report doesn't recommend,
says Payette. - Payette:
Would they have to have gone to journalism school [to be granted the title]? No, of course not. - I don't want to decide [who gets to be a journalist], I don't want the government to decide. Payette believes we have to keep the profession open to people of all status and backgrounds
- Payette: The media would not be forced to adhere to the plan, but there would be strong financial incentives to do so.
- Much of the proposal has to do with joining journalists and organizations under one single code of ethics, she says. "A dream for many today"
- "It has been said this would create two classes of journalists. I would like to point out there already is many classes of journalists" i.e., unionized, those undergone significant labour threats (closed papers), then there are the others, "those that have nothing", freelancers hired at conditions worse than 20 years ago.
- Having a distinct professional status would not give courage to journalists who have none, she says, but it would help those who do want want to stand up for themselves, their ethical values, what they do
"It's not the journalists we want to protect, it's their way of working" - Payette: There is nothing in this plan that takes anything away from anyone. Nothing would prevent blogs from flourishing in all languages. Nor is this a nostalgic project.
- Next up: Ivor Shapiro, Chair of Ryerson University School of Journalism
- Shapiro says he makes his living teaching in what is called a professional school, but our students, upon graduation, do not join a profession ... in the sense that they join an accredited body, etc., such as doctors, etc.
- Shapiro: The proposals made in the report are quite nuanced, and nothing like the Draconian idea of licensing journalists
- The idea of professionalization does not just centre in Quebec, he says, but has been bubbling up all over the place
- Some of the reactions have been substantially less nuanced than the report itself. Shapiro thinks it reflects a "kneejerk response" against the idea of a professional title. It doesn't mean that it's unhealthy; it reflects a culture of certain orneriness, etc., in journalism
- Shapiro: But there are many ways to understand the word profession
- Shapiro says the question is: How much higher on the graph from informal to formal do we want journalism to go? That depends on what are the benefits, and what are the conditions?
- Certifiable journalists might get business class status to certain kinds of information. Those there find problems there for the others -- those that aren't certified. This already happens: press cards, place on closed shareholder call, press gallery -- that's a door that's open to some and closed to other.
Permanent class is a matter of different kind, but likely not unconditional. - Which brings us to matter of conditions: Here's where it gets murkier: Do I get my status by promising to abide by a code of conduct? In that case it might be fine too. If there are benefits to carrying that card, the gov't is likely to say it takes more than just promising. It might limit employment options if you, or you, or you say I've broken it. Now, you can not only condemn me in public, or make it harder for me to get information. Now, says Shapiro, that person not only becomes a second class journalist, but a second class citizen
- Shapiro says those who seek to define who a journalist is may face up to the mighty problems that come with it, says journalists -- the things that might restrict citizens.
- After all, says Shapiro, journalists are not doctors, or lawyers, with all the responsibilities that come with those professions. "All that journalists do is this: we speak." And it might therefore be that freedom of speech, just that, is the only freedom we should play, says Shapiro.
- Final panellist up: Michael Geist
- Geist: I think the report asks some of the right questions, with not all the right answers. But I also think it doesn't ask all the right questions.
- Two main concerns, he heard: How to we fund public interest journalism? How to deal with inequitable contracts for journalists?
- Geist says
I think those are the right questions, but I have to say with all respect making the status of journalists professional, doesn't solve either of those - Not denial, or lack of courage: The larger problem is the economic conditions of the news industry. Accreditation, he says, might provide better access, but he finds that it won't provide better coverage
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