We can do better

This coming Wednesday, May 3, marks World Press Freedom Day. But instead of celebrating it along with other progressive democracies, Canada should be hanging its head.

That’s because this country, astonishingly, does not rank in the Top 10 or even the Top 20 countries in the world for freedom of the media.

Instead, to our shame, it has dropped four places in the past year to 22nd, according to an annual index by Reporters Without Borders. That puts Canada behind Samoa and just ahead of the Czech Republic and Namibia.

The decline reflects what the organization calls a “series of scandals” over the past year, including:

The revelation that police in Quebec had been spying on journalists, albeit with judges’ permission.

Acourt’s upholding of a request by the RCMP for a reporter to turn over background materials in a terrorism investigation.

The arrest and potential lengthy jail term of a reporter covering a protest against the Muskrat Falls hydroelectric project in Labrador.

Surely this can’t be Canada, a democracy that relies on press freedom to uphold democratic ideals and human rights. Sadly, though, it is.

The federal government can improve the situation by supporting legislation designed to strengthen the rights of journalists and their confidential sources.

Currently, the Supreme Court of Canada holds that journalistic sources may be protected, but that the protection is to be decided on a case-by-case basis. And there is no constitutionally protected right to shield a source.

That’s why Quebec and Montreal police could track journalists’ cellphones with impunity even as the reporters were breaking important stories, such as one detailing corruption in the province’s construction industry.

It’s not the first time Canada has dropped in the ranking of press freedom. This year’s drop follows a dramatic fall in 2016 that reflected what Reporters Without Borders described as a “dark age” for journalism during the Harper years.

Disturbingly, 2017 doesn’t look any better. “We have reached an age of post-truth, propaganda and suppression of freedoms — especially in democracies,” the report states.

As Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said last fall in response to revelations that reporters were being spied on: “Not only is freedom of the press important, but it’s one of the foundational safeguards of a free democracy, of a free society.”

That’s why editors of major news organizations and the advocacy group Canadian Journalists for Free Expression have urged the Liberal government to pass a press shield law to protect whistleblowers and investigative reporting.

It’s high time Ottawa enacted legislation to protect journalists if Canada is to rank where it belongs next year — at the top of the press freedom index.

According to Reporters Without Borders, Canada’s ranking in the world for freedom of the media has dropped to 22nd