Press curb proposed

Press, 8 July 1983, Page 6

Press curb proposed

NZPA-Reuter Ottawa

The Canadian Government yesterday made public legislation to limit chain ownership of newspapers, establish a national press council, and finance new provincial and foreign news activities. “You can’t have a free press if too much is owned by too few,” the Multicultural Minister, Mr Jim Fleming, a former broadcaster, told a news conference.

“All the publishers themselves and the owners say that there can be a limit to ownership beyond which it becomes dangerous. We’re simply putting a limit on ownership,” he said.

But spokesmen for the country’s two biggest chains, Thomson Newspapers, and Southam, said that the bill would infringe

the Constitutional right of freedom of speech and could lead to court battles. The proposed legislation comes almost two years after a Royal Commission, headed by a former journalist, Tom Kent, studied concentration of ownership in Canada’s newspaper industry and suggested stiff measures to dilute it. The text of the bill had been released to allow public debate before it was introduced when Parliament resumed in September, Mr Fleming said.

Pierre Trudeau’s Liberal Government vowed to press ahead with plans to set up a national council to hear complaints against all newspapers unless voluntary provincial press bodies were strengthened and expanded. Publishers immediately condemned the move as Government interference in press freedom, and a waste

of money. The proposed bill will prohibit any person or groups from controlling more the 20 per cent of national circulation. That means the two biggest chains — Thomson with 41 of Canada’s 115 daily newspapers and 21 per cent of national circulation, and Southam, with 15 dailies and 27.6 per cent circulation — would not be able to buy any more papers. They would not be forced to sell any papers although, if the chains were sold, they would have to be broken up. Any group convicted of controlling more than 20 per cent of national circulation could be fined up to $500,000.

The Government also proposes setting aside up to $1 million annually over five years to help newspapers set up foreign or provincial bureaux.