Canadian disability advocates criticise takeover of Canwest

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Tuesday, 7 September 2010 17:36pm

A group of Canadian organisations and individuals who advocate disability rights has been very critical of a planned acquisition of the Canadian television broadcasting company Canwest Global by Shaw Communications. Their criticisms centre on the fact that Shaw has made no commitment to accessibility, and in particular audio description.

Canwest owns the Global Television Network, which operates 11 television stations in Canada that reach 94% of the English speaking population. The disability advocates have filed an intervention with the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), which will now hold public hearings into the acquisition.

Audio description (called ‘descriptive video’ in Canada) is currently set at 3% of programs per day on Canadian television. “Frankly, we were shocked that in applying for control of so many TV stations and speciality services Shaw didn’t even mention issues like closed captioning and descriptive video,” said Beverley Milligan, President and CEO of Media Access Canada. “Shaw's silence about accessibility in the Canwest application makes us ask how long Canadians who rely on descriptive video are supposed to wait before they can access television like everyone else?”

 


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