Blank newspaper pages hit home with Niagara MPS

The work of local reporters who uncovered “the abuse of power” at the Niagara Region a few years ago is an example of what is at stake if those newspapers disappear, said St. Catharines Liberal MP Chris Bittle.

He was referring to numerous newspaper stories published throughout 2018, focusing on the tainted hiring of Niagara’s former chief administrative officer Carmen D’angelo.

“We may have gotten tired of it at the end in terms of the actions going on with the previous administration of our regional government, but I think the actions were shocking to the majority of Niagara residents,” Bittle said.

“As residents of Niagara, if we think about the important stories that have been broken by the Standard, the Review and the Tribune, without that outlet we lose the chance to not only tell our story, but to hold governments to account.”

Bittle called the blank front pages of Niagara’s daily newspapers Thursday “a poignant reminder” of the importance of local news, and what is at stake if those local newspapers follow the lead of too many others in recent years.

The empty front page was part of a News Media Canada campaign that included newspapers from across the country, urging the federal government to follow Australia’s lead, where legislation was introduced in

December to force Facebook and Google to negotiate with Australian media to provide adequate compensation for news content.

The organization says those companies are using their monopoly to pocket 80 per cent of online advertising in Canada, while news companies across the country are closing their doors.

“The threat is certainly very real,” said Niagara College media studies program co-ordinator Charlie Kopun.

“It’s a long, protracted kind of battle that the legacy of publishing has been dealing with for the last 10-15 years.”

The existential threat posed by the technology companies has become apparent in recent years, as once thriving newspapers and other media companies have laid off workers or shutdown entirely.

While people who are not directly involved in the industry might not understand the severity of the situation, Kopun said the blank front pages have drawn attention to the issues.

“This is a very effective way to do it, in terms of the blank front page,” he said, who spent decades working at newspapers before joining the college.

Niagara West Conservative MP Dean Allison called it a long-term problem that’s impacting the health of Canadian journalism as well as the quality of information that is available to people.

“If people are not able to disseminate the information and where it comes from, that’s where you get into trouble in terms of conspiracy theories, that’s where you get into trouble around people not really understanding what’s going on,” he said.

Allison said he will be looking into the concerns expressed through the News Media Canada campaign, and the Liberal government’s plans to address those concerns.

Bittle shared concerns about “dangerous conspiracies spread like wildfire through social media outlets, seemingly unchecked.”