Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Breaking: Canada Almost as Bad as America   [Mark Steyn]

Reporters Sans Frontières has just released its annual report on press freedom. Can't say I know much about them, but I assume they're the usual bunch of Euro-lefties. However, I was happy to have done my bit to aid Canada's plummet in the world rankings from big hit sound Number 13 all the way down to Number 19:

The Paris-based group, also known by its French acronym RSF, did not say why Canada dropped six spots from last year's ranking.

Chris Waddell, a journalism professor at Carleton University, says he can think of two things that may explain Canada's drop this year.

The first is the decision of Canada's top court to take on a press freedom case involving the sponsorship scandal...

Waddell says the second thing that comes to mind is the Canadian Human Rights Commission, which has come under fire recently over a couple of high-profile cases.

One of those cases involved a Mark Steyn book excerpt on the Maclean's magazine web site. The excerpt was accused of promoting hatred and contempt of Muslims.

That case was tossed out, but led some to demand that the commission be disbanded.

I'm not sure "tossed out" is the word. It was the subject of a week-long trial in Vancouver, which might certainly strike RSF as a bit odd. Alas, my puffed-up pride at exposing Canada's government regulation of opinion was somewhat deflated by the U.S. performance in the same global hit parade:

The United States rose to No. 20 this year from No. 40 in last year's ranking, which the group attributes to more relaxed attitudes toward the media under U.S. President Barack Obama.

Well, that's one way of putting it. The press are relaxed about him, and he's so relaxed about them he's bringing in Canuck-style "hate speech" laws and a new "fairness" doctrine and regulation of the Internet. As far as I can tell, this present survey was completed before the inauguration of his Fox-ostracization policy. That should be good for another ten places in next year's chart — and by then Canada may be out of the Top 20 entirely. 

10/20 03:07 PMShare