CBC lockout leaves North with little local news (fwd)

[phil cash cash]

Wed, August 17, 2005

CBC lockout leaves North with little local news

By BOB WEBER
http://money.canoe.ca/News/Sectors/Media/2005/08/17/1177154-cp.html

(CP) - While southern Canadians frustrated with the CBC lockout can
simply twist dials or flip channels, the public broadcaster's labour
dispute has left many northerners without local news - and some with
little programming at all in the only languages they speak.

"For us here, it's very bad case of interruption to our Inuit
listeners," said Paul Kaludjak, president of Nunavut Tunngavik Inc.,
which oversees the Nunavut land claim.

"People listen to news in Inuktitut, announcements in Inuktitut,
community reports that CBC does," he said from Rankin Inlet. "It's
become a very key link to information around Nunavut."

After 15 months of negotiations, the CBC locked out 5,500 unionized
employees at 12:01 a.m. Monday. At issue is the broadcaster's wish for
more flexibility to hire contract and part-time employees, something
the Canadian Media Guild says is a danger to job security for full-time
staff.

Although viewers and listeners have plenty of choices in the dense media
landscape of southern Canada, the CBC is the only full-time broadcaster
in most northern communities.

Local community radio stations provide a few hours of programming a
week, often with technical support from CBC staff.

Yellowknife is the only community in the N.W.T. or Nunavut that has
private radio stations with news staff. None has private TV news
broadcasts.

Cable service and broadband Internet are increasingly common in the
North and offer dozens of options for national and foreign news.

But local news is a different story.

"We certainly see your news," said Terry McCallum, mayor of Cambridge
Bay. "But as far as local news, we're tied to the CBC."

As well, CBC North is one of very few broadcasters providing programming
in aboriginal languages. That includes daily radio and TV news in
Inuktitut, as well as phone-in shows and community bulletin boards - a
service much appreciated by the 70 per cent of Nunavummiut who speak
Inuktitut.

"That has all totally vanished," said Jim Bell, editor of Iqaluit's
Nunatsiaq News newspaper.

"If you're a unilingual Inuktitut speaker, you can't even get
information on why you can't get information."

CBC Iqaluit has one Inuktitut-speaking manager, who is providing daily
weather broadcasts as well as interviews from a bowhead whale hunt in
Repulse Bay. The station is also broadcasting storytelling by Inuit
elders.

The N.W.T. has one private radio station that provides aboriginal
language programming across much of the territory.

But the CBC lockout has stilled a vital forum for the exchange of
regional news, says Nellie Cournoyea, head of the Inuvialuit Regional
Corporation and a former CBC staffer.

"Local access for providing news is so important," she said from Inuvik.
"It's an important couple of hours they broadcast during the day."

The CBC has been broadcasting plenty of reruns and pared-down programs
during the lockout. There has been no management-produced television
newscast. Instead, the corporation has been relying primarily on the
BBC World News service.

Newsworld has been limited to one-minute roundups of Canadian news read
by managers who have then handed things off to the BBC.

CBC Radio has relied heavily on music programming.

"The one thing I've heard from a couple of cab drivers is that whoever's
doing the music programming has good taste," laughed Cournoyea.