News Media Canada has submitted amendments to Bill C-18, the Online News Act.
These amendments come after considerable engagement with our 565 member titles. News Media Canada agrees that while the Australian legislation is an excellent template, a few changes are necessary to apply it to the Canadian context.
These include:
- Ensuring the owner-operator journalists count toward the two-journalist eligibility
minimum. These titles often operate in news deserts or areas of news poverty and tend
to be in rural and remote communities across Canada. - Making certain than news publishers that do not have the QCJO designation follow
journalistic practices and principles. - Providing specific timelines for negotiation, mediation, and arbitration.
The full text of our amendments are available for review here.