Leaders at the Canadian Media Guild are renewing their call on the CRTC to ensure that local news survives as another newsroom closes in Quebec, this time at Corus-owned 940 Radio Montreal. The station is being changed from an all-news to a Greatest Hits format. The CMG sends its best wishes and support to the 18 newsroom employees who will be out of a job after today.

“It appears that private broadcasters in Quebec have launched an assault on news and newsgatherers,” says Lise Lareau, national president of the CMG. The Corus announcement comes soon after TQS began closing TV newsrooms across Quebec and cuts at Global TV in Quebec, and also follows plans by the new owners of a one-time Corus radio station in Quebec City to move from all-news to a sports format.

“We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: the CRTC must take action to ensure that local news and information programming survives the current private media trend in this country,” Lareau adds. “These companies still have an obligation to the public and one of the most important ways they can fulfill that obligation is to provide quality reporting about local events and issues.”

The CMG joined with other media unions at the recent Canadian Labour Congress convention to condemn the loss of local news across Canada. The union urges civic leaders to take stock in their communities of the way local issues and events are reflected, or increasingly not reflected, by the media available to their citizens.

The CMG represents 6,000 media workers, including, in Quebec, at The Canadian Press/La Presse Canadienne, CJRC Radio Gatineau and Agence France-Presse.

For more information, contact the Guild (info@cmg.ca) at 416-591-5333 or 1-800-465-4149.