It’s one of the fastest reversals of government policy that I’ve ever seen.
On Sunday, the Trudeau Liberals were promising to bring in a licensing regime for news outlets and podcasters, by Monday they were singing the praises of a free press.
And make no mistake, the report tabled last week called for registration and licensing of media outlets more than once.
In recommendation 56, the report calls for online media to be registered by the CRTC, meaning any news outlet, any podcaster, any content creator — a recipe blog — could be registered by the government.
“This would require a person carrying on a media content undertaking by means of the Internet to register unless otherwise exempt,” the report states.
And at recommendation 74, the report called for the CRTC to be given the power to, “impose codes of conduct, including provisions with respect to resolution mechanisms, transparency, privacy, and accessibility regarding all media content undertakings.”
