Thanks to readers Rob and Matt who sent this info in this morning:
Secretive CBC lacking accountability
State broadcaster thinks it is above it all
By BRIAN LILLEY, Parliamentary Bureau…for all the legislation and promises aimed at providing transparency into how our tax dollars are spent, there is one government organization that thinks it is above it all: the CBC.
[…]
In the last three years, QMI Agency has filed thousands of ATIPs [Access to Information Requests], trying to find out how and why CBC spends taxpayer money on board meetings in Iqaluit, executive expenses, anchor salaries and bidding for commercial or sports properties.
But in most cases, our ATIPs have been ignored or rejected, with the Corporation claiming exemptions for any information related to news, programming and creative work. Many ATIPS came back with thousands pages blank or blacked out, like top-secret intelligence documents.
We complained to the Access to Information Commissioner, who took the CBC to the federal court. She wanted to see if the CBC was justified in refusing our requests. The CBC fought and lost the case, but has now appealed the decision. It costs money to fight these cases in court but, again, the CBC won’t tell taxpayers how much money they are spending to keep their files closed.
So, in our on-going efforts to hold CBC accountable to taxpayers, QMI is going to run a regular series of stories on the corporation. We’re going to call it “Down the drain.”
Today, we’re starting with some of our favourite [access to information] “rejections.” These are simple questions we’ve asked that the CBC refuses to answer. Feel free to send us your questions or thoughts so we keep up the pressure for accountability.
Send your CBC tips to [email protected].
I’ve posed a couple of question myself, here, over the years. Some are directed at the CBC, but some at the progressives — the various liberals and socialists in and out of government — who quixotically support that socialism-reliant, state media monstrosity. This includes the Conservatives, who have officially and publicly endorsed the state media in our country.
One of my main questions to them and all of you is: what kind of government competes against its own citizens in business for profits; and what is government doing in the forum of ideas, and particularly in the political ideas and analysis? Especially when the state media has what I see as a clearly systemic anti-conservative and pro-leftist agenda and culture, which has been nurtured over the years by leftists — and our tax dollars. What kind of government does that? And what kind of people allow their government to get away with this?
Oh I’ve got more too. NONE of them have been satisfactorily answered.
EXTRA COVERAGE:
That article (above) also appears in the Ottawa Citizen, along with this one:
Expert says CBC ignoring info requests by the same author.
PTBC was founded by Mr. Johannesen in 2000.
Contact Mr. Johannesen about this article using this form. Please refer to article's title.
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