YourMedia.ca is a media-watchdog web site with bite. Launched today, it provides an unprecedented amount of detail about a series of actions by CanWest Global Communications. The site also scrutinizes the Irving and Hollinger empires and will soon be broadened to encompass other media companies.

This authoritative web site, the first of its kind in North America, has been developed by TNG Canada/CWA, one of the country's largest media unions.

"YourMedia.ca is a national gathering place, information source and rallying point for those who cherish and demand freedom of expression, full diversity of voices and unfettered independence of the media outlets that serve their communities," says Arnold Amber, director of TNG Canada/CWA.

"All citizens, not just media employees, must be equipped with the information they need to carry on the crucial battle for quality, uncensored and unbiased journalism," Amber declares.

YourMedia.ca documents how CanWest has in a variety of instances placed private interest ahead of the public trust. It brings home in crisp, day-to-day terms the real and damaging effects of cross-media ownership, concentration and convergence, illustrating this with a broad range of information and links that detail controversial initiatives taken by CanWest since 2001 to control editorial content.

CanWest has left readers of its newspapers across the country in the dark about virtually all these actions. This is also the case for viewers of Global TV, CanWest's national televison network.

The Your Media site is launched as the Senate's Transport and Communications Committee continues a broad examination of Canada's media industries. CanWest has provided virtually no newspaper or television coverage of the inquiry. The committee's mandate is "to ensure that Canadian news media remain healthy, independent and diverse."

TNG Canada/CWA last week presented the Senate committee with the results of a survey of journalists who work for five of Canada's media empires. A large majority of those polled believe that editorial quality of chain-owned newspapers is down while corporate control is up. These editorial workers also seek restrictions on foreign ownership and media concentration.

A premier feature of Your Media is Insider Exposé. It provides any media employee, reader or viewer with the opportunity to become a whistleblower, and bring to light any facts that site users — and perhaps members of the Senate committee — would find illuminating and instructive.

With Your Media, says Amber, "We are committed to providing relevant facts and the context to try to ensure that media owners — CanWest and others controlling the platforms of public information and debate — respect the public trust and act with integrity and openness toward a full range of news and views."

"The public trust is sacrosanct. But actions by some media owners in recent years, abundantly detailed on our web site, demonstrate that Canadians clearly can't take for granted that they are getting the complete story or a full range of opinion," he adds.

"It is time for media owners to re-establish and guarantee local editorial independence, to re-invest in local resources, and to take other necessary steps such as restoring staffing levels across the country in order to return our media to the higher level of quality from which Canadians benefited in past years."

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