The Canadian Press is reporting that the federal government is considering a $150 million fund for private broadcasters to safeguard local news and stations.

According to CP, members of the cabinet priorities and planning committee met yesterday to discuss the options. The fund would be directed at news and current affairs programming in smaller urban centres.

“Whether the CBC would be eligible is still unclear, although the private broadcasters have been lobbying vigorously against it,” the CP article reads.

“It would be absurd to come up with a bailout program for the media industry that completely ignores the public broadcaster,” Lise Lareau, president of the Canadian Media Guild said.

“Obviously the government’s role is to be the caretaker of the public broadcaster on behalf of Canadians and so we expect it will fulfill that role and place the needs of the CBC high on the priority list when it considers any bailout for local news,” Lareau added.

The full article is here.

	Email This Post
	Parliament, The Media Landscape