Vancouver - BCLA

Jumpstarting the Public Sphere: Information Policy Issues for the 21st Century

The Information Policy Committee of the BC Library Association presents a conference about net neutrality, media concentration, telecommunications policy, TILMA, access to information, and intellectual property. Join librarians and interested community members to discuss these pertinent issues and help come up with ideas for what you can do about them!

Media Democracy Day Vancouver
Media Democracy Day 2008 festivities will take place at the Vancouver Public Library, 350 West Georgia Street, on Saturday October 25th 2008 from 12 noon to 6 pm. Admission is free and open to everyone.

UBC’s SLAIS Information Policy Blog on the conference

Kate Milberry of SFU bloggin’ MDD.

Just in Time! The Harper Record

The Harper Record

The book is available via pdf on CCPA website and will be avail. for purchase as hard-copy in October. The Harper Record, edited by Teresa Healy (Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives). This book is one in a series of CCPA publications that have examined the records of Canadian federal governments during the duration of their tenure. As with earlier CCPA reports on the activities of previous governments while in office, this book gives a detailed account of the laws, policies, regulations, and initiatives of the Conservative minority government under Prime Minister Stephen Harper during its 32-month term from January 2006 to September 2008.

The 47 writers, researchers and analysts who have co-written this book probe into every aspect of the Harper minority government’s administration. From the economy to the environment, from social programs to foreign policy, from health care to tax cuts, from the Afghanistan mission to the tar sands, from free trade to deep integration, and to many other areas of this government’s record, the authors have dug out the facts and analyzed them.

The Harper Record was necessarily researched and written long before an election was called, but its publication does coincide with an election campaign and thus may help citizens to make informed choices about the future of their country. Regardless of the election outcome, its contents will continue to be relevant between elections. In detailing what a minority Conservative government really did, or failed to do, it may serve as a guide and model for future elections.

Geist on Copyright Reform Bill at Con U

Michael Geist, founder of Fair Copyright for Canada (now at 90,000 members) discussed the controversial Bill C-61, Canada’s Copyright Reform Bill, on September 15th. The audio of the talk is now available at the Canadian Journal of Communication site.

Mapping Media Justice Policy Activism in the United States & Canada

Research project funded by Concordia University’’s General Research Fund, 2008.

This research interrogates specific U.S. and Canadian media policy issues and the impact of media justice organizations in influencing policy processes. Policy issues include media concentration and consolidation, internet freedom, and independent and community media. Media justice organizations include many non-profit and grassroots groups who view media as a civil rights issue, thus advocating for social justice through promoting informed media policy that particularly addresses concerns of gender, race, and class. Media justice is situated within the burgeoning global Media Reform Movement. “I don’t think there is a movement that has grown so fast in the last 7 years”, enthused Stanford University intellectual property scholar Lawrence Lessig at the 4th annual National Conference for Media Reform in Minneapolis in June 2008, which brought together over 3,000 participants - activists, scholars, and the general public. This movement is broadly concerned with media and democracy issues: the impact of increased media concentration of ownership on ensuring a diversity of voices and quality journalism; curbing market-led media policies favoring de-regulation that lead to an evisceration of independent, local, and educational media content; promoting policies for universal broadband access; and internet freedom, including network neutrality (the principle that all information sent over the internet should be treated equally–a design principle that ensures that a useful public information network treats all content, sites, and platforms equally). The GRF goals include:

»» Mapping Media Justice Policy Activism in the United States & Canada