Thursday, April 24, 2014

CBC tightens disclosure rules for on-air staffers' speeches

In a rather long-winded and patronizing post on the CBC website, chief editor Jennifer McGuire states:

"For CBC News on-air employees, we're tightening our procedures around paid speeches. We'll reject requests from companies, political parties or other groups which make a significant effort to lobby or otherwise influence public policy, even if the speech or event seems innocuous.
"We're also going to centralize our tracking system for all speeches whether they are paid or not. This will help ensure that we apply our rules thoroughly and consistently. And we'll reinforce with our staff that all are accountable for understanding the rules and sharing this information. This will also apply to our radio current affairs personalities. And we're making another commitment to all Canadians that CBC News will be more transparent than ever before.
"Starting in May, we'll post regularly online a list of appearances by our reporters and hosts -- both paid AND unpaid. This will allow you to judge for yourselves how well we're living up to our commitments."

The new policy comes following a flap about Peter Mansbridge and others taking fees from various groups.
The full post

No comments:

Blog Archive