Ed - answer mark 2
- not totally relevent to the thread but certainly indicates the bias of reporting in a section of the Canadian media and how any report of the attack upon the flotilla might just be not entirely 'objective'

A website devoted to cross-media ownership, convergence & concentration in Canada has published a 'time line' about the formation of CanWest Global and its dispute with journalists at The Montreal Gazette in 2001 onwards

Sept. 1 Montreal Gazette publisher Michael Goldbloom quits, cryptically citing differences with CanWest over the direction the chain is taking

November Peggy Curran, TV critic at The Montreal Gazette, writes a column about a CBC documentary about to be aired. The topic is the treatment of journalists in the occupied territories. Her column is first held, then a rewrite is ordered. Curran complies, the amended column runs, but she then gives up her TV-critic spot and goes on a year's leave of absence.

Dec. 5
CanWest announces national editorials to run in all major dailies except one of the two CanWest owns in Vancouver, BC. A mini-insurrection erupts, leading to newsroom turmoil at the Montreal Gazette and the quashing of a byline protest. Editorial Page editor Peter Hadekel asks to be reassigned. His request is granted.

Dec. 11
Fifty-four journalists and other staff at The Montreal Gazette publish an open letter denouncing the national editorial policy as an infringement on freedom of expression. The text runs in Toronto and French-language Montreal newspapers but is not carried, much less mentioned, in any CanWest publication. The protest is covered by Canoe, a web site owned by a rival media operation, Quebecor. Other journalists add their signatures after the fact, bringing the total to 77.

Dec. 14
An "advisory" to unionized staff from Montreal Gazette management warns employees that working there is a privilege, not a right. The gag order warns that employees risk disciplinary action, up to and including dismissal, for sharing the internal goings-on at CanWest with rival media or publicly questioning the motives of management. The Montreal Newspaper Guild (a Local of TNG Canada/CWA) files a grievance but, under pressure, a web site independently set up by Gazette employees to voice their concerns is taken off-line. The Federation of Professional Journalists of Quebec soon re-posts the material on its Web server.

June 6 2002
Full-page ads appear in the Globe and Mail, the Winnipeg Free Press and Halifax's Chronicle-Herald – three of the few major Canadian newspapers not controlled by CanWest – denouncing the company's stifling of debate and dissent. The signatories are a Who's Who of Canadian journalism, including former publishers and executives of the newspapers now owned by CanWest. The ad was refused for publication in any CanWest paper.

Sept. 17 2004
Reuters news agency says it will be having a chat with CanWest Global officials about editors at their newspapers inserting inappropriate terminology, such as "terrorists," into their coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. CBC Ottawa reports that the National Post altered Reuters copy while The Ottawa Citizen, which was caught out by an alert reader, distorted an Associated Press story for which it ran a correction.

Members of the Asper family, which owns CanWest, have never made a secret of their unqualified support for Israel and their disdain for journalists who strive to be objective in their coverage of the Middle East conflict(s). While Izzy Asper and his now-CEO son, Leonard, clearly delivered the message to CanWest Global reporters and editors that news copy as well as "national editorials" would reflect their personal views, this is the first time a news service has publicly objected to its copy being altered in such a way.

Sept 22
Globe and Mail publishes a commentary by Mazen Chouaib, executive director of the National Council on Canada-Arab Relations, in which he calls upon "Parliament to take a hard look at the impact and effect of media concentration in this country." Excerpts:

When the late Israel Asper's CanWest Global Communications acquired a significant share of the Canadian media, many of us feared the worst — particularly on the issue of Middle East coverage. In the past week, CanWest's editorial practices have shown we were right to worry.

• • •

For many Arab Canadians, this is another example of what they have long complained about: CanWest seems to make every effort to demonize them and their culture. There have been many complaints by Arab groups against CanWest, but the organization maintains an uncompromising and unapologetic position.

Nov. 17
The pro-Israel Aspers acquire a 50-per-cent interest in the Jerusalem Post, an English-language daily owned by disgraced media baron Conrad Black

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