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Friday, February 27, 2015

Save the CBC

Forbidden Ad: Networks reject Friends’ TV spots

Feb 25, 2015
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Toronto - All the major Canadian TV network and station owners: Bell, Corus, Québécor, Rogers and Shaw have refused to air Friends of Canadian Broadcasting TV ads that satirize Stephen Harper for his hostile agenda towards the CBC.

“The ads the networks do not want Canadians to see are meant to hold the Harper government to account for the damage it has done to public broadcasting in Canada,” says Friends spokesperson Ian Morrison.

Before being submitted, Friends’ ads were approved by the Television Bureau of Canada, an industry consortium that screens proposed TV ads to ensure they meet industry standards.

In addition to Canadian networks, Friends approached a number of US border stations including in Burlington/Plattsburg, Vermont; Bellingham, Washington and Buffalo, New York, to carry the ads.  Each of them also declined to run the ad.

Friends did not offer the ads to the CBC/SRC because of the public broadcaster’s refusal to air Friends’ previous ads.

“In Canada, the decisions of a small handful of corporate executives have shut down legitimate discussion of an issue salient to Canadian public opinion.   If free speech and public debate is a cornerstone of a democratic country, Canada may now be on shaky ground,” Morrison said.

Friends has shifted its advertising to several online properties.  The ads are also available to Canadian television viewers on some English-language specialty channels, as well as NBA and Leafs TV.

“These ads satirize Mr. Harper as a Prime Minister who will stop at nothing to control, punish and silence critics, a characterization that many people may find accurate,” Morrison said.

In the ad, a Harper aide, tied to a chair that is sinking in a body of water, shares his thoughts with viewers about his predicament.  He had the temerity to urge the Prime Minister to go easy on the CBC, and is now being punished.  On his descent, he recognizes a colleague who is suffering the same fate.

“Through budget cuts, partisan appointments to the CBC Board, and new powers, the Harper government is trying to control and silence our national public broadcaster, the CBC.

“But he can’t drown us all out. The vast majority of Canadians, including Conservative supporters, hold the CBC in high regard.  These ads are being released as a wave of protest grows across the country against the Harper government’s hostile agenda toward the CBC,” Morrison concluded.

-30-
 
For information:
Jim Thompson
613-447-9592
jim@friends.ca

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