Toronto — The English-language spinoff of Middle East news network Al Jazeera is coming to Canada.
The CRTC approved a request to carry Qatar-based network Al Jazeera English via satellite, in a decision released Thursday, noting that “AJE will expand the diversity of editorial points of view in the Canadian broadcasting system.”
Satellite service Ethnic Channels Group Ltd., based in Toronto, submitted a request to the regulator in late February to carry the network, which broadcasts international news 24 hours a day, seven days a week. With Thursday's decision, Al Jazeera English is now eligible to be carried across Canada.
The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission has declared in the past that it would take an “open-entry approach” to approving non-Canadian news services, because of the importance of “a diversity of editorial points of view.” Because of this, when the commission has no evidence that a news network would broadcast content that violates Canadian regulations, the CRTC is “predisposed to authorize” distribution.
“There is nothing on the record of the current proceeding that leads the Commission to conclude that AJE would violate Canadian regulations, such as those regarding abusive comment,” the commission wrote in the decision.
AJE, which employs many journalists formerly with CBC, BBC, and Réseau de l'Information (RDI), is far less controversial that its sister network Al Jazeera Arabic, which faced opposition in 2003 when it sought to be carried in Canada. Opponents to the licensing accused Al Jazeera Arabic of airing anti-Semitic content. Of particular concern were call-in shows where comments are difficult to control. While many critics lobbied against AJA coming to Canada, there was no similar push against AJE this time.
“We had some good reason to object to Al Jazeera Arabic in Canada. They were involved in some very disgusting programming. Al Jazeera English to date, has not been,” said Bernie Farber, CEO of the Canadian Jewish Congress, which neither supported nor objected to the application. “Our hope is that it won't be.”
The managing director of Al Jazeera English, former CBC News executive Tony Burman reached out to the CJC and B'nai Brith Canada, to establish a committee that will allow those organizations to express any concerns they have with content on the network. That spirit of communication, plus the diversity of the AJE staff, helped ease some concerns, Mr. Farber said.
“We were given assurances that in fact, [AJA and AJE] are two different organizations, separately run,” Mr. Farber said. Because they are owned by the same parent company, he continues to be concerned about problematic footage being shared between the two networks. “We remain wary.”
More than 2,600 people or organizations filed comments to the CRTC in support of the application.
“It's important for Canadians to see images, and to see stories and to see people talking about their reality, that we don't usually have access to … because unfortunately, news channels in Canada don't have the manpower to have as many reporters all over the place,” said Mohamed Boudjenane, executive director of the Canadian Arab Federation, which was one of those supporters. “Quite frankly, when you have crappy, biased channels like Fox … it's about time for Canadians to get access to another perspective of the news.”
Since launching in 2006, Al Jazeera English has established a prominent presence on the Internet, and is carried in 100 countries.
“Canada is one of the only countries in the world that has neither Al Jazeera English or Al Jazeera Arabic, including the United States and Israel," Mr. Burman said in an interview with the Globe and Mail in June. AJE was widely expected to win approval here in Canada in late summer or early fall, sources close to the CRTC told the Globe at the time.
On Thursday, sources said the delay in approval was due to a heavy workload, including major files such as the decision on Wireless applicant Globalive and the debate over the future of broadcast television, which has been the subject of a set of CRTC hearings this week and last.
With files from Grant Robertson
© The Globe and Mail
