The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (SRC) has just published new standards that now govern the use of “offensive words” about “race, national ethnic origin, color, religion, age, sex , sexual orientation, marital status or physical or mental disability”. The CBC submits to the dictates of the CRTC. This means that an editor, a news director, a program director or the corporate lawyers and ultimately the CEO will be forced to play censor. You have to say things as they are! (Fortunately, the contents of the archives were spared this censorship.)
While I was hosting the show 5 out of 5, a viewer asked us to explain why Muslims had threatened with death the cartoonist of a Dutch newspaper who had dared to publish a cartoon of the Prophet Muhammad, which, according to some Muslims, the Koran prohibited. This cartoon and many others were also published by Charlie Hebdo in France, which led to the murder of several collaborators and journalists of the weekly. It was out of the question for us to forbid ourselves to illustrate the point and we honestly and soberly presented this caricature on the screen. In television, the image is as important as the sound.
On the occasion of a later report by the CBC reporting on the anniversary of these events around the cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad, will the company dare to rebroadcast the images “offensive” for many Muslims? What kind of warning will have to be published in order to present these cartoons again? Should we apologize for bearing witness to this reality? Or resolve not to present these images?
The new standards imposed by the CRTC on the SRC will have to be used to answer the recriminations of anyone who claims to be offended by words and images that do not suit their sensibilities. While journalism must fight a daily battle against the ” fake news », it will now be necessary to live with a new form of censorship and resist blackmail. It’s starting to look like post-war Quebec, where the Catholic Church blacklisted books and movies. The CRTC is bathed in the same spirit by draping itself in a veil of virginity which, little by little, will paralyze the practice of free and responsible journalism.
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