About IFEX:

News by region:

IFEX Campaigns and Advocacy:

IFEX Email Products:

Opportunities and assistance:

Alert

Quebec journalists alarmed about media concentration

(FPJQ/IFEX) - The FPJQ is concerned that media concentration in Quebec is reaching alarming levels.

Six out of seven million Quebeckers are native French speakers. At the moment, they have access to ten daily newspapers in French. Yet within the next two months, seven of these ten newspapers could fall into the hands of a single media group: Power Corporation.




Almost all French-language newspapers would thus be controlled by two media groups - Power Corporation and Quebecor - each controlling approximately fifty percent of daily circulation. An independent daily newspaper - "Le Devoir" - would represent less than five percent of the total. This paper is influential in Quebec but has limited financial means.

At the request of the FPJQ, the Quebec government has agreed to hold a special parliamentary hearing that will publicly examine the consequences of media concentration in Quebec. This hearing will be held in February 2001.

The issue of media concentration is all the more urgent because one of the two groups - Quebecor - has recently acquired the largest private French-language television network in the province: TVA. This transaction will be examined by the Canadian broadcast regulation authorities early next year. If it is successful, Quebecor will also assume control of the largest cable distribution network in Quebec, a number of the most popular internet sites, and a diverse group of magazines.

Quebecor will add these new acquisitions to the long list of magazines and regional weekly newspapers it already owns.

When so few control such a preponderance of media organisations, diversity and pluralism are threatened, as are freedom of expression and democracy. The FPJQ fears for the future of any independent media outside of these two powerful groups.