McLean’s wins Human Rights case

The Canadian Human Rights Commission has refused to hear a complaint against McLean’s Magazine that it published information that held Moslems up to hatred and contempt. The four page decision isn’t available yet (I’ll link to it when it is), but this is one media commentary on it:
CTV, June 28, 2008

Read the Supreme Court’s decision on Mair

and it is interesting reading. Among other things, the judges pointed out that Ms Simpson, an anti-gay activist, herself used provocactive, aggressive language to defend her case, e.g. that there is a “war” between homosexuals and non-homosexuals. Meanwhile, the more long-lasting decision will be the following test on what constitutes “honest belief”, a key component [...]

Absence of malice kills libel suit against Rafe Mair

The Supreme Court dismissed libel charges against BC radio host Rafe Mair today, citing fair comment and absence of malice in his remarks. While his comments were the typically outrageous expected from Mr. Mair, nevertheless the justices overturned a lower court ruling.
The court also modified a key component of the fair comment defence that the [...]

Media bias in the copyright debate

Some thoughts from the blogosphere of the conflict of interest most mainstream media face in the copyright debate: Most mainstream media are owned by major ISP providers and tech companies.
“UPDATE:  Hugh comments below that his point was: Most mainstream ISPs are owned by major media companies.”

hughmcquire, June 26 2008

Quebecor fights with unions on on-line reporting

Quebec’s militant journalism unions are fighting Quebecor’s plans to have its journalists do more on-line reporting, as is now common in English language and US media.
Canadian Press, June 27, 2008

Domain names now wide open

The body that regulates domain name use on the web has just allowed for a big expansion from .com and .org. This is likely to set off bidding wars for new names.
CTV, June 26 2008

Orlando Sentinel tries redesign to woo new readers

With ad revenues collapsing in the US, redesign is once again tried to win new readers. Will it work? Well, it basically seems to be USA today bright graphics, short stories and more columns. This one will need some time.
Orlando Sentinel, June 23 2008

If you think media law is tough in Canada….

… check out Slovakia.
Slovakia’s new media law, which took effect this month, requires newspapers and magazines to print replies from people named in an article who feel their “honour, dignity or privacy” has been impinged.
In certain circumstances, papers will be required to print “supplementary” information, even if all of the information in an article is [...]

Canadian entertainment media outlook looks bullish

Pricewaterhousecoopers  issued a report yesterday indicating a solid growth forecast for all Canadian entertainment media, including new media and mainstream media. Again, as all trends seem to indicate, MSM and NM work best together, complementing each other, instead of fighting each other.
“While there are still significant revenues coming from traditional segments the biggest movements and [...]

MSM/blogosphere starting to come to terms

Albeit with fear, loathing and mutual suspicion. Nevertheless, the Associated Press is meeting with a blogging group to hammer out some guidelines in which AP stories can be linked to blogs. Copyright law is remarkably vague on concepts such as fair comment and reasonable use; this sounds like a good attempt to set some parameters [...]