CanWest Global Communications
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Image:Canwest.PNG CanWest Global Communications Corp. Template:Tsx Template:Tsx Template:Nyse is Canada's largest international media company. The company's head office is situated in Winnipeg, Manitoba.
Contents |
Operations
See also: List of assets owned by CanWest Global Communications
CanWest MediaWorks is the company's Canadian operating unit. It consists of:
- Global Television Network, a Canadian television network which reaches over 94% of the English-speaking population of Canada;
- CH, a second system of stations based in Hamilton, Ontario; Victoria and Kelowna, British Columbia; Montreal, Quebec; and Red Deer, Alberta (plus, as of February 27 2006, a non-CanWest-owned affiliate in Kamloops, British Columbia). Despite this small number, through repeaters and cable television it reaches the majority of major Canadian markets;
- specialty services including Prime and various digital services;
- a small number of Canadian radio stations;
- the former Southam newspaper chain, which includes the number-two national newspaper National Post, the broadsheet daily newspapers in most major markets, and several other smaller newspapers. CanWest is Canada's largest newspaper publisher;
- production, distribution, and Internet assets such as CanWest Entertainment and canada.com
In New Zealand, Canwest MediaWorks NZ TV3, C4, and a number of radio networks and stations. CanWest also has significant interests in The Ten Group, parent of Australia's Network Ten, as well as the Republic of Ireland's TV3. For a long time it owned a minority interest in Ulster Television, the ITV1 franchise in Northern Ireland, however it was sold to various investors in 2004, CanWest having had little influence with the company.
Corporate governance
Board of directors
Current members of the board of directors of the company are: David Drybrough, Leonard Asper, David Asper, Gail Asper, Lloyd Barber, Derek Burney, Robert Daniels, Paul Godfrey, Frank King, and Lisa Pankratz.
Former members of the board of directors of the company include: Izzy Asper and Frank McKenna.
Concentration of power
CanWest is often cited as an example of how the ownership of Canadian media has become concentrated in the hands of a few individuals and large corporations. CanWest founder Izzy Asper was known as a strong supporter of both Canada's Liberal Party and Israel's right-wing Likud party, and of many laissez-faire policies in both countries. Observers have suggested that Asper's political views have had a significant impact on news coverage at CanWest media outlets. For example, in 2002, Ottawa Citizen publisher Russell Mills was fired by CanWest after the paper published a series of articles exposing a financial scandal involving then prime minister Jean Chrétien.
CanWest's power in the marketplace is reflected in a new contract that freelance contributors must sign. Until recently, standard industry practise was that freelancers sold the rights for one time use and only in Canada. CanWest now requires that freelancers sign over all rights "throughout the universe in perpetuity".
In response, the company's supporters often cite the alleged power of the federal government over both the broadcast regulator, the CRTC, and another major media "conglomerate", the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (although both entities are intended to be at arms-length from the government and from each other).
Editorial controversies
Since the 2000 acquisition of the major former Canadian newspaper holdings of Conrad Black's Hollinger International, including CanWest News Service, opposition has been expressed by some journalists, union spokespersons, politicians, and pundits about CanWest's enforcement of its corporate editorial positions. A 2001 decision to run regular uniform national editorials in all metropolitan dailies (except National Post), whereby local editorial boards could not take local positions on subjects of national editorials, ignited major national controversy and was subsequently withdrawn.
Conflict over CanWest editorial control and policy has focused in particular on three issues:
- The Liberal Party of Canada. Since Israel Asper's leadership of the Manitoba Liberal Party, the Asper family has been identified with Liberal politics and politicians. In July 2001, Southam national affairs columnist Lawrence Martin, was fired after a column of his critical of Liberal Prime Minister Jean Chrétien was not published. Russell Mills, longtime publisher of The Ottawa Citizen, was fired in June 2002 after the newspaper called on Chrétien to resign. However, as of 2006, at least one Asper family member (David Asper) is now publicly supporting the Conservatives. ([1])
- The government of Israel and conflict in the Middle East. Veteran Montreal Gazette reporter Bill Marsden has said that the Aspers "do not want any criticism of Israel. We do not run in our newspaper op-ed pieces that express criticism of Israel and what it is doing." [2] In 2004, the Reuters news agency protested after CanWest altered newswire stories about the Iraq war and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, such that Reuters felt it had inserted CanWest's own bias under Reuters bylines. The changes were apparently made in accordance with a CanWest policy to label certain groups as terrorists. [3]
- CanWest editorial control and management itself. In December 2001, 77 staff at The Montreal Gazette signed a letter and launched a web page [4] opposing the national editorial policy, and the reporters among them participated in a byline strike, refusing to sign their names to their stories in the newspaper in protest. Management responded with a gag order. The next year, several journalists left The Halifax Daily News over similar conflicts, and ten journalists at The Regina Leader-Post were reprimanded or suspended after a byline strike to protest censorship of coverage of a speech in Regina by Toronto Star columnist and CanWest critic Haroon Siddiqui.