Canada’s outstanding reputation for freedom of the press has been badly damaged by the actions of media conglomerate CanWest Global Communications Corp., the International Press Institute (IPI) said in a strongly worded protest on Tuesday, 18 June.

Russell Mills, publisher of the daily Ottawa Citizen, was fired late on Sunday, 16 June, on the grounds that he had not consulted corporate head office before publishing a major article alleging misconduct by Prime Minister Jean Chretien and an editorial calling for the prime minister to resign. Mills said there was no requirement to consult head office.

Johann P. Fritz, Director of IPI, said that firing Mills raised alarming questions about links between CanWest’s owners, the Asper family of Winnipeg, and Canada’s liberal government.

“It is an attack on press freedom by an unholy coalition between politics and big business,” Fritz said. “Many believe that it is only in autocratic countries of the Third World or in countries in transition that democracy and a free press are in danger. But the Mills affair will have a chilling effect on critical reporting in Canada and will bring an increase in self-censorship.”

CanWest has also been accused by journalists of trying to limit press freedom in Canada because of its policy of requiring member newspapers to run identical editorials from head office twice a week.

Fritz urged CanWest to abandon its new policy and return to a state where its many distinguished editors had full freedom to comment on all major issues. Otherwise Canada’s democratic diversity of views was at serious risk, he said.

The Vienna-based IPI is a global network of editors, media executives and leading journalists from newspapers, magazines, broadcasting organisations and news agencies in over 110 countries.