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World News Day on September 28 is a global initiative that spotlights the role journalists play in providing trustworthy news and information.
This year it will also draw awareness to the turmoil and threats facing the industry, which undermine citizens and democracy all over the world.
Every year, our union marks World News Day because we believe it is impossible to improve the conditions of work, and the conditions of the world, without trusted news sources.
Journalists hold the powerful to account, but lately less so at city hall and in smaller communities, where local news has been centralized and cut.
Many smaller communities in Canada don’t have a local television station, newspaper or digital presence and are unable to share local stories, question politicians and leaders or investigate to uncover wrongdoing.
This has led to news deserts, where citizens then turn to the Internet and social media for the news, increasing misinformation and disinformation.
Social media giants, run by American monopolies, use algorithms to curate social media feeds and put their bottom line first, with local news and holding power to account a distant second. Unifor condemns Facebook’s callous decision to block Canadian news content.
Clicks mean dollars for these companies and Internet sites that make the most outlandish claims, or the most sensational headlines often get the most clicks, becoming moneymakers for American social media companies. Sadly, while this happens, it puts democracy on the sidelines, while the public becomes misinformed.
Bad actors on the Internet also feel emboldened to harass journalists, particularly journalists of colour and from equity-deserving groups. The hate is real and our union’s media worker members have encountered people behind their keyboards spewing the vilest, often sexualized and racist slurs on a daily basis.
Unifor believes that every day should be World News Day. Our union has been lobbying for supports for local news for many years and will continue that fight for journalists and media workers on the ground. Our union is creating a special advisory committee to prioritize the many issues media workers in the sector face, in a way that’s meaningful and effective to them.
Unifor has also been providing supports for journalists who have been harassed and are working to stop the harassment at its source, particularly with the rise of Conservative politicians like Pierre Poilievre, who smugly criticize journalists and media workers and threaten to defund them, including the CBC.
Today and everyday, Unifor reaffirms its commitment to saving local news.
We still have a chance and a duty to save journalism.
