Juno News - November 16, 2020


Media freedom conference’s first session is closed to the media


Episode Stats


Length

3 minutes

Words per minute

177.08235

Word count

630

Sentence count

23


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

The first agenda item at the Global Conference for Media Freedom is not actually open to the media. In other words, the first session is held in a closed-door session, and the media doesn't even get to know what the agenda is about.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
00:00:00.040 I'm here at the second annual Global Conference for Media Freedom. Well, sort of. The conference
00:00:11.000 co-hosted by Canada has been moved online this year with all of the festivities taking place
00:00:16.180 in front of a computer screen, but nevertheless I'm tuned in. And just like last year when I
00:00:21.380 covered the first Global Conference for Media Freedom in London, it already looks like much
00:00:26.520 of the theme will be about window dressing. Take a look at the very first session on the
00:00:32.600 agenda, a ministerial meeting of the Media Freedom Coalition. People will be meeting from
00:00:38.200 the governments of Canada, the United Kingdom, and the heads of delegations from other Media
00:00:42.720 Freedom Coalition countries, but it is a closed session. So when all of these delegation leaders
00:00:49.540 from different countries around the world gather together to talk about, quote, key concerns
00:00:54.420 regarding media freedom and identify priorities for the coming year, unquote, a meeting chaired
00:00:59.920 by Canada's foreign minister, Francois-Philippe Champagne, it will be in a closed door session.
00:01:06.020 In other words, the very first session for the Media Freedom Conference is closed to the media.
00:01:12.940 Now, I understand the reason for in-camera meetings. I understand why on key issues like perhaps
00:01:18.200 national security or other sensitive matters, you might need to have a meeting that goes behind
00:01:23.180 closed doors. But right now, countries are going to be talking about the issues in their countries
00:01:29.060 and around the world for media freedom, and the media doesn't even get to know what those priorities
00:01:34.040 are going to be. Now, this is very similar to something that happened last year when I was
00:01:38.360 actually kicked out of a session that was, again, a closed session as countries were going to be
00:01:44.340 talking about what really was the most substantive part of the whole conference. Now, there are going to
00:01:49.460 be other events later on that I'll be able to tune into about democracy and free speech and press
00:01:54.980 freedom, and I'll certainly have a report about those as the day goes on. In fact, Prime Minister
00:02:00.220 Justin Trudeau is speaking. But it certainly sends a unique message when the Media Freedom Conference's
00:02:05.340 first agenda item is not actually open to the media. And it makes me wonder whether this is going
00:02:11.440 to be very similar to what happened last year, where a lot of the countries like to talk the big talk,
00:02:15.960 but aren't actually prepared to walk the big walk. Here are the things that I'm interested in learning
00:02:21.160 about. Why is Botswana, one of the countries co-hosting this year's conference, when it actually
00:02:27.020 in the past year in particular, has been using the heavy hand of the state to prosecute journalists for
00:02:33.240 daring to report on the government or even perhaps offering an alternative perspective to the government
00:02:38.660 narrative on COVID-19? Will the Canadian government be committing to press freedom after Justin Trudeau's
00:02:45.320 hand-picked debates commissioner blocked True North and Rebel News, including myself, from covering the
00:02:51.860 official government-sanctioned leaders debates in last year's election? Again, Canada is not perfect
00:02:57.420 when it comes to media freedom, yet Canada is one of the co-hosts of this conference. Will there be
00:03:02.940 any introspection, or will it simply be an opportunity for Canada to tell the world why everyone else has
00:03:08.880 to do better? Reporting from the 2020 Global Conference for Media Freedom, I'm Andrew Lutton.
00:03:14.640 Now, I know I didn't need to fly anywhere to cover this conference, but still, True North is standing
00:03:19.200 up for media freedom and covering these issues, covering the free speech battles in a way the
00:03:24.320 mainstream media is not. If you can chip in a few dollars to support our efforts, it would be very
00:03:29.080 much appreciated. Head on over to tnc.news slash donate.