It's time we recognize ethnic media's place in our broadcasting system

“Language is at the heart of cultural identity; it shapes who we are and our perspectives. When we speak our languages, we share stories, pass on knowledge and create bonds for generations.” Patrimoine canadien - Canadian Heritage, Ottawa, June 14, 2021

LAST YEAR a group of important ethnic media organizations came together to advocate for inclusion of diverse communities and ethnic programming in Bill C-10, the first major amendment of the Broadcasting Act in 30 years. We called ourselves the Canadian Ethnocultural Media Coalition (CEMC). The initial group has expanded and now includes the most active and prolific ethnic media organizations in the country (see list of members below).

Parliament is again pondering the new Bill C-11, legislation to modernize the Broadcasting Act and regulate online streaming.?So the CEMC has restarted our efforts to secure official recognition as having a place and a value in the system. This is something that is long overdue given our enormous contributions over decades. And demanded by the demographic makeup of this country, with over 7 million Canadians reporting a non-official language as the language most often spoken at home.

For too long the role of domestic ethnic media broadcasters and ethnic media producers has been largely ignored by the system's policymakers. The most recent expert study on broadcasting policy reform – the Broadcasting and Telecommunications Legislative Review Panel – not only ignored multicultural media in its 97 official recommendations, it didn’t even mention multiculturalism or ethnic broadcasting in the entire 235 page report.

Unfortunately, the Canadian ethnic media industry has never been recognized and allowed full membership in our broadcast system. The CRTC Ethnic Broadcasting Policy was issued in 1999 some 23 years ago during the analog age and has never been updated.

To be precise, I am not talking about ensuring the diverse ethnic minority communities of Canada participate in creating, consuming and working in mainstream media. That is already happening. Rather, I am speaking of programming created and produced by and delivered to our ethnocultural communities in their preferred languages.?Canada's creators of ethnic media and operators of ethnic broadcasting services have been steadfastly denied appropriate and proportionate recognition and supports by our government and regulatory agencies.

Let’s look at the present context and realize how this is a truly serendipitous moment. First, Canada’s official multiculturalism policy established in 1971, just passed the half century mark. Second, Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms is about to complete its 40th anniversary (it came into being on April 17, 1982) and Section 27 calls for all of those rights to “…be interpreted in a manner consistent with the preservation and enhancement of the multicultural heritage of Canadians”.

We live in a country where 1 in 5 residents identify a non-official language as the one most often spoken at home. While Canada’s largest city Toronto leads the way with an astounding 140 different languages spoken among its population, the entire country is viewed by the world as a bastion of multiculturalism and linguistic diversity.

Canada has never been more ethnoculturally and multilingually diverse as we are today, Yet Canada's Broadcasting Act doesn't recognize these 3 things:

1. the role of domestic ethnic media,

2. produced by multicultural communities, and

3 delivered to Canadians by ethnic operated broadcast services.

We should finally fill these gaps.Then maybe those who take their cues from our legislation would ensure:

1. the?CRTC?reviews its outdated 1998 ethnic broadcasting policy, and

2. agencies like?Canada Media Fund would devote more than a symbolic 1.4 % of funds to supporting Canadian ethnic content production

Recently, much has been done to introduce new factors favoring support for PRODUCTION companies owned and controlled by diverse communities. Yet the same considerations are NOT being applied to BROADCASTING companies. There is no logical reason to say diverse communities should be supported in owning?production companies but not supported in owning the actual broadcast services that?deliver those productions to Canadians. ?

CONCLUSION

The Broadcasting Act should recognize that full participation in the system includes production of content and operation of broadcasting services. It should also ensure such Canadian content, including ethnic programming, and such Canadian services, are made available and visible, not marginalized.

Therefore, we are again proposing inclusions to reflect Canada’s ethnocultural diversity in legislation to amend the Broadcasting Act. These amendments will ensure that the?Act?recognizes diverse ethnic minority communities appropriately. This will in turn ensure that regulatory action focuses on concrete measures to address systemic inequities.

Given the pressures being exerted on our sector by a fast changing media content industry, we desperately hope and remain determined to see our value acknowledged and our place in the system secured.

Aldo Di Felice is president of TLN Media Group and a founding member of the Canadian Ethnocultural Media Coalition.

CEMC member organizations and their representatives include:

• The Canadian Ethnocultural Council?– (Dominic Campione, president, Canadian Ethnocultural Council)
• Fairchild Television?– (Joseph Chan, vice-chair, Fairchild Media Group)
• TLN Media Group Inc.?(TMG) – (Aldo Di Felice, president, TLN Media Group Inc.)
• Ethnic Channels Group Limited?– (Slava Levin, CEO, Ethnic Channels Group Limited)
• ICI?– (Sam Norouzi, vice-president and general manager, ICI Television)
• The Canadian Ethnic Media Association?(CEMA) – (Madeline Ziniak, chair, Canadian Ethnic Media Association)