Freedom of the Press
The Issue
While freedom of the press is protected by the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, it is in serious jeopardy. The business model that has sustained the media is failing – resulting in a significant loss of professional journalists and a serious decline in the media’s capacity to do the investigative reporting that is critical for public knowledge and government and corporate accountability. The work of the media in Canada is also imperilled by weak access-to-information laws, court publication bans, vexatious defamation claims, and the chilling effects of mass surveillance.
Why It Matters
Democracy depends on an independent, uncensored, diverse, professional media to inform the public, to ask difficult questions, and to foster transparency and accountability in those who wield power.
Our Work
The Centre for Free Expression promotes public discussion of the importance of freedom of the press, challenges facing the institutional media, and the opportunities and limitations of social media as an alternative. It works in collaboration with journalists, media organizations and public interest groups to evaluate models for the sustainability of independent, adequately financed, investigative journalism, to press for better access-to-information legislation, to limit publication bans and to strengthen protections for free expression.
Resources
Making it illegal will not stop the spread of misinformation
As we have seen in recent elections and in the present pandemic, misinformation can do real harm. But the Canadian government’s
By James L Turk
The Trudeau government and Correctional Services Canada need to withdraw rules that stifle reporting on federal prisons, CFE and other press freedom organizations demand
The Centre for Free Expression joined four other press freedom organizations in calling on the federal government to permit the media to provide the public with an accurate and timely depiction of
April 16, 2020
Even in the Age of Covid-19, Justice Requires Open Courts
The justice system is facing unprecedented challenges.
CFE Intervenor Factum in Journalist-Source Privilege Appeal before the Supreme Court of Canada
Factum of the Intervenors [CFE, CAJ, CJFE, AD IDEM, CMG, Global News, Postmedia Network, APTN] in R. v. Vice Media Canada(SCC)
May 15, 2018
BPC Bulletin: Reporter Justin Brake Files Charter Challenge
October 2, 2019 - Justin Brake — the journalist who was charged with civil and criminal offences after he reported an Innu and Inuit protest at the construction site of a hydroelectric dam in Labrador in October 2016 — has filed a Charter challenge in court.