As you might have read in recent days, an Ontario Superior Court judge has released copies of a videotaped interview between Toronto police and convicted murderer Paul Bernardo. Bernardo was interviewed at the Kingston penitentiary in June 2007 about whether he had any involvement in the disappearance of University of Toronto student Elizabeth Bain, who has not been seen since June 1990.

Media, including the CBC, petitioned the court to permit the release of the tape (the tape doesn’t show any graphic images or descriptions of Bernardo’s crimes). While several media outlets have decided to air the entire 31-minute interview either online or on-air, the CBC decided it would not run the footage in its entirety.

The CBC’s executive editor of news operations, Esther Enkin, is answering questions on the Editors’ Blog about this decision. One of the questions:

Q: Was CBC one of the “media organizations” that argued in favor of the material being released, and if so, why the change of heart after the fact?

A: Yes we were. And no — it wasn’t a change of heart.

There were two reasons to apply for the release of the documents: CBC News has always had a strong commitment to an open judicial process. We believe justice is best served by making the system as transparent and public as possible. We also wanted to see the tape and judge for ourselves what its news value might be.

We did use portions of the tape in several stories: on radio, Newsworld, television and online. We used them in context and in a way we hope helped inform people about an ongoing case of great public interest.

You can read more at the CBC Editors’ blog.

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