Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre said local journalism is in a “terrible” state in Canada because of the Liberal government’s hefty subsidies for the legacy media.
Poilievre made the comments last Thursday during an interview with The Lake Report, a Niagara-region local outlet. The Conservative leader criticized the validity of the Local Journalism Initiative, a government program that funds the hiring of journalists to cover underserved communities using taxpayer dollars.
Journalists can be eligible to receive up to $60,000 per year under the program.
“It is terrible … how local journalism has done under nine years of Trudeau,” said Poilievre. “He’s tried to take it over and basically wants everyone to work for the government so that he can have regurgitated propaganda paid for by taxpayers.”
Poilievre accused the initiative, which was launched in 2019 and renewed this year, of being little more than a sounding board for the Trudeau government, alleging that government-funded media can not be aligned with freedom of speech.
“I am looking into it. But more important than that, the question is how do we bring back free speech,” said Poilievre.
Poilievre elaborated by adding that the “answer is journalists getting eyeballs so they can sell subscriptions and advertising, get sponsorships” and that the free press has relied on these models to make revenue historically.
Those who support the Local Journalism Initiative and other government legislation like the Online News Act, claim it protects media outlets from tech giants like Meta and Google.
However, the implementation of such legislation led to news articles and links being banned from social media platforms as a way for Meta to skirt the financial obligations levied against them by the federal government for its use of Canadian news content, further hurting these outlets.
A study by the Media Ecosystem Observatory found that Canadian news outlets have lost 85% of their engagement on Facebook and Instagram in the year following Meta’s news ban, a loss compensated slightly by increased engagement on other platforms like TikTok.
However, the increase on other platforms has not recovered the loss, resulting in an overall decrease of 42.6% in online engagement.
Poilievre argues that the internet, when not meddled with by bureaucrats, has had a positive impact on journalism because it has allowed more voices into the fray, offering varied opinions on important issues.
“Media and journalism is stronger than ever today because we have the internet, which allows for more voices to reach Canadians and that competition is positive,” he said.
“We can’t have the government try to shut down the competition just to favour those who favour the political viewpoint of Justin Trudeau.”
Many Canadians seem to agree.
A poll commissioned by True North and conducted by One Persuasion shows that 55% of Canadians either moderately or strongly agree that news media companies dependent on taxpayer funding are incapable of impartially reporting on the government. Only 32% of Canadians disagree with the sentiment while 13% are unsure.
Younger Canadians are more distrustful of government subsidies to the legacy media, as 68% of men and 63% of women ages 18-34 agree subsidies hurt the media’s impartiality.
Those who voted for the federal Conservatives and People’s Party of Canada in 2021 are far more distrusting of the Trudeau government subsidizing the news media than their political adversaries, as 73% of Conservative voters and 80% of PPC voters believe the subsidies hurt the media’s impartiality.
However, an even number of Liberal and NDP voters sat on either side of the issue, with 44% of Liberal voters agreeing and disagreeing that government subsidies for the media affect neutrality. Similarly, 42% of NDP voters both agree and disagree about the effect government subsidies have on the media’s reporting.
