CBC Quits Tweeting Over 'Government-Funded' Label

Canadian public broadcaster says coverage is 'impartial and independent'
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Apr 17, 2023 7:20 PM CDT
CBC Is Latest to 'Pause' Twitter Use
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau takes part in an announcement and press conference at Ericsson in Ottawa on Monday, April 17, 2023.   (Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press via AP)

The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation has joined NPR and PBS in quitting Twitter, at least temporarily. The CBC says it is pausing its activities on Twitter because the company put a "government-funded media" label on its account, suggesting the Canadian government controls its content. "Our journalism is impartial and independent. To suggest otherwise is untrue," the public broadcaster said in a post on its Twitter account Monday, listing other platforms where it is still active.

"Twitter can be a powerful tool for our journalists to communicate with Canadians, but it undermines the accuracy and professionalism of the work they do to allow our independence to be falsely described in this way," said spokesperson Leon Mar. "Twitter's own policy defines government-funded media as cases where the government 'may have varying degrees of government involvement over editorial content,' which is clearly not the case with CBC/Radio-Canada," Mar said Sunday, noting that the broadcaster's "editorial independence is protected in law in the Broadcasting Act" and that its funding appropriation is voted on by all members of Parliament.

The CBC has asked Twitter to take another look at the designation, the AP reports. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's chief rival, Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre, urged Twitter CEO Elon Musk to give the CBC's English-language service the label last week, saying it broadcast "Trudeau propaganda," the Guardian reports. Trudeau fired back at Poilievre on Monday, saying he "runs to American billionaires" to "attack this institution that is important for many, many Canadians." (More Twitter stories.)

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