But despite making some interesting and constructive suggestions, the report itself fails to clearly set out some of the tough measures needed to curb things like increasing media concentration.

"If anything, this report makes it clear that Canada fails miserably, in comparison to other countries, in regulating the ownership of its news media," Arnold Amber, Director of TNG Canada/CWA, said after release of the report Wednesday.

"We welcome the Senators' idea that Canada needs to have a media watchdog, but we're disappointed there are no clear guidelines among their recommendations," said Amber.

The Guild has long been concerned about the harm media concentration and cross-media ownership has inflicted on the newsrooms of the nation and the resulting decline in diversity of news and opinion. While the Senate panel's first recommendation is to add a new section to the Competition Act to deal with mergers of news gathering organizations, it does not set a threshold of ownership that would trigger a review.

"The Senators have done an excellent job of setting out a large number of concerns about the negative impacts of media concentration. We hope that Prime Minister Stephen Harper and the federal government takes those concerns seriously and acts upon them," said Amber.

TNG Canada/CWA is also pleased to note that several of the 40 recommendations appear to be based on information and suggestions contained in briefs it and its largest Local, the Canadian Media Guild, submitted to the Senate panel. One example is their recommendation that "a network of centres of excellence for research on journalism and the state of the Canadian news media be established."

TNG Canada Locals represent workers at many of the major metropolitan dailies owned by CanWest Global, as well as at the CBC and Canadian Press.

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