Diversity of Voices
by Libby Davies
 Dear friend, Are you one of the many Canadians increasingly concerned about the situation of our country's media? Media diversity is the cornerstone of democracy, yet in recent years consolidation has left our media in the hands of fewer and fewer big corporations, with ownership (control) among the most concentrated in the industrialized world; the CRTC has advanced consolidation and commercialization while neglecting the public interest and even adopting policy breaking its own legal mandate; insecure and inadequate funding has compromised our public broadcasting, and English CBC now earns most of its revenue from commercial sources.
Join a growing movement of Canadians acting to protect Canadian media. We are rallying around urgent public intervention in the CRTC's Diversity of Voices Proceeding.
This proceeding was created in the wake of major corporate media mergers to examine issues of concentration of ownership and its impact on diversity. It is open to public input until July 18th.
The airwaves are public property, yet CRTC proceedings are
usually dominated by representatives of big media. If they are allowed
to dominate this important proceeding, it will lead to even more policy
serving corporate
interests at the expense of consumers, workers, local communities, citizens, and our democracy.
A
new coalition, Canadians for Democratic Media (CDM), has just launched
a national action campaign to get Canadians directly involved in the
CRTC. A non-partisan coalition of activists, labour unions, civil
society, academics and
independent media, CDM is acting to
mobilize unprecedented public input to ensure the CRTC gets the
message: Canadians oppose concentrated ownership; we want the CRTC to
encourage and protect diversity, and strengthen non-commercial and
community media.
On CDM's website,
www.democraticmedia.ca, you can join Canadians from across the country
sending input to the CRTC - and the CRTC weighs each
comment. This is a powerful way of countering big media's influence and promoting the public interest.
I
am supporting this campaign. The deadline for public input is July
18th, so we need to act fast to defend diversity and stop the big media
takeover.
Please
consider supporting this campaign, and - just as important - spread
the word among your own networks, communities and organizations.
Please take action now and learn more at
http://www.democraticmedia.ca.
We urge you to join and support this critically important action today.
Signed,
Libby Davies, MP
Vancouver East
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