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
Anti-Black Racism and Inequality: What Is to Be Done?
Adolph Reed, Jr. - In Conversation with Umair Muhammad
Ivor Shapiro joins CFE as a senior fellow
Respected journalist and educator, Ivor Shapiro has joined Ryerson’s Centre for Free Expression (CFE) as a senior fellow. Shapiro is a forme
September 22, 2020
BPC Bulletin: Police Charge Journalist Karl Dockstader in Ontario
September 6, 2020 - In southern Ontario, a journalist plans to fight the criminal charges that police laid against him after he had filed reports about a land dispute in August.
BPC Bulletin: Charlie Hebdo Update
September 1, 2020 -This week, the trial of 14 people begins in a courtroom in Paris, France. All are suspected of helping Islamist terrorists attack the office of Charlie Hebdo, the satirical magazine, and a kosher supermarket in January 2015.
BPC Bulletin: Canada Deports Danish Journalist
August 23, 2020 - In Vancouver, border guards recently denied a Danish journalist entry into Canada and then deported him.