Prime Minister Justin Trudeau welcomes the open letter from journalists and media urging action to address threats, harassment and intimidation of members of the press.
On the same day that the issue of threats against politicians is in the forefront of the news, nearly 50 media and journalists’ associations released an open letter Thursday asking Justin Trudeau to intervene. to counter the same phenomenon with journalists.
“We must understand that our very democracy is at stake,” said the Prime Minister, while in Winnipeg.
“The ability of journalists to do their job well to ask difficult and sometimes uncomfortable questions, to be there to share the truth, to challenge citizens and authorities, is essential. »
undermine trust
According to Mr. Trudeau, these threats are intended to “undermine people’s confidence in our democracy, but also the ability of our journalists to be able to do their job without fear and without being concerned for the well-being of their families”.
“All politicians must be unanimous in their condemnation of intimidation, of violence against those who do their job, whether other politicians or journalists,” insisted the Prime Minister.
In its open letter, the news community is mobilizing against what it calls “a growing and alarming problem of online hate and harassment that targets journalists and journalism as a profession”.
The signatories point out that this problem, which disproportionately affects racialized journalists and women, is worsening despite numerous outings from various organizations.
Freedom of expression is not absolute
Joined by The Canadian Press, the president of the Professional Federation of Journalists of Quebec (FPJQ), Michaël Nguyen, argued that “for the past fifteen years, there have been reports on people who have been convicted for that they hold on social networks”. The police, he points out, constantly remind us that what we say on the web is the same as if we say it in person.
“It’s important to remind people because obviously the memo didn’t get through to some people,” Nguyen said.
The courts constantly remind that freedom of expression, although vital, is not without limits, argues the president of the FPJQ. “Sometimes a person may go beyond permitted political commentary and engage in prohibited criminal conduct. […] Freedom of expression is not absolute: it does not allow threats or harassment. We can criticize, but as soon as it becomes attacks, as soon as it is done so that the person targeted has fears for his safety, then we have just moved into the criminal side. »
Police arrested
The signatories of the letter therefore ask the police forces to act on several fronts. For example, since many threats use the same language, not to treat them as isolated incidents but as a larger threat with a holistic approach. They also ask the police to improve their handling of complaints of this nature, who often tend to minimize them.
“Police across the country often don’t take threats to journalists seriously enough, often treat them as isolated events and don’t try to understand that it’s part of a set of ‘patterns’. that it is part of a concerted approach to undermine the ability of our democracy to function, the ability of journalists to do their job to highlight what works and what does not work in our society, ”acknowledged Justin Trudeau.
In Quebec, on the other hand, the situation is starting to change, specifies Michaël Nguyen. “During the summer, the FPJQ spoke with bodies who told us that we should not hesitate to file a complaint and that complaints are taken seriously, will be investigated and if there are grounds for filing charges , it will be done. »
Concretely, the authors of the letter also want the police to be able to receive and process multiple incident reports from the media as a whole and to accept the filing of complaints by the media as an organization rather than dealing with each complaint from journalists individually.
“Hate pays off”
Politicians, media organizations are asking to look into how social media platforms deal with, or rather neglect to deal with, bullying, threatening or hateful content online.
“Those who can control this are the social networks themselves, argues Michaël Nguyen. We are talking about digital superpowers. They have the means with artificial intelligence, they have the resources. »
However, he said, they should be forced to do so.
“It doesn’t interest them because the more emotions it generates, publications on the Internet, the more money it brings them with advertising revenue because it creates interaction. »
“Hate pays off excessively because — all studies show — what generates interaction in social media posts is emotion. Yes, unfortunately it is chargeable. To whose detriment? To the detriment of politicians and journalists and everyone who goes on social media and is exposed to these threats of harassment. »