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Canada’s CBC network pauses its activities on Twitter after being labelled ‘govt-funded media’
CBC made that announcement several hours after Twitter had added that label to the @CBC handle. Similar labels were given by Twitter to other media, including BBC, NPR and Al Jazeera
Toronto: The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), the country’s state network, has paused its activities on Twitter after being labelled ‘government-funded media’.
CBC made that announcement several hours after Twitter had added that label to the @CBC handle, though other network handles like CBC News and Radio-Canada, did not appear to have been similarly labelled.
“Our journalism is impartial and independent. To suggest otherwise is untrue,” CBC said in a tweet, announcing the decision. Similar labels were given by Twitter to other media, including BBC, NPR and Al Jazeera.
CBC added that it is “publicly funded through a parliamentary appropriation that is voted upon by all Members of Parliament. Its editorial independence is protected in law in the Broadcasting Act, as we said in our statement from last week”. However, it has often been criticised by the opposition in Canada of being biased towards the positions taken by the ruling Liberal Party and the government of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
According to CBC, it received government funding of $1.24 billion Canadian dollars ($926 million) in 2021-22 and $1.39 billion Canadian dollars ($1.03 billion)in 2020-21.
On Monday evening, Twitter owner Elon Musk, who was born in Canada, tweeted that CBC’s concerns had been addressed and its label changed to “70% government-funded media”, which presently appears as “69% government-funded media”. Musk tweeted, “Canadian Broadcasting Corp said they’re ‘less than 70% government-funded’, so we corrected the label.”
The labelling issue has turned political in Canada. On April 11, opposition leader Conservative Pierre Poilievre wrote to Twitter and Musk asking them label CBC as government-funded media. He tweeted, “We must protect Canadians against disinformation and manipulation by state media.”
Trudeau attacked Poilievre in this regard, as he told reporters: “In order to attack this institution that is important for many, many Canadians, he runs to American billionaires, the tech giants that they continue to defend.”
“It is important to take a moment to assess what Twitter has done. That is why we have pressed pause today on our accounts,” CBC News editor-in-chief Brodie Fenlon said, on its website.
