Here's my take on the significant events and trends in Canadian journalism over the past 12 months, ranked in hierarchical order of importance.

Please note that I work for a division of CTVglobemedia, so I must be circumspect as to what I can say about stories involving my employer.

1. The collapse in ad revenue

With the recession finally starting to really bite this fall (the revenue picture had started weakening in 2008), major advertisers -- including North American auto companies, a major revenue source -- started to cut back. This has been felt by Canadian media companies and will continue to reverberate well into 2009.

2. The financial problems that had already materialized

This is by no means exhaustive, but here's a sampling (j-source developed a list, published Nov. 27).

The Toronto Star reduced its head count by 122 (160 in total across TorStar) in a "substantial voluntary separation program" announced in Febuary, but some "involuntary" cuts were also involved (here's a TorStar news release). Publisher Jagoda Pike left in October and editor-in-chief Fred Kuntz left by Dec. 31. Both had been in their jobs just over two years and had replaced two other short-timers. Former CBC News publisher John Cruickshank became the Star's publisher on Jan. 1; a replacement for Kuntz has yet to be named.

Sun Media announced 600 job losses. The Toronto Sun lost 16 staffers in its newsroom and eight part-timers.

Sun Media had previously absorbed Osprey Media and brought aboard Michael G. Sifton, that chain's proprietor, as president and CEO. Quebecor CEO Pierre-Karl Peladeau punted Sifton and took over the job himself.

Rogers Communications announced about 100 layoffs in early December, including at Maclean's, its flagship newsmagazine.

CanWest eliminated 560 jobs in both TV and newspapers (350 in print, 210 in newspapers -- a five per cent cut in total). However, CEO Leonard Asper said the company will continue to build in growth areas such as online. CanWest is seen to be in deep financial trouble. Its stock price has lost most of its value over the past 12 months. The Asper family-controlled company has a huge debt overhanging it -- $13.7 billion.

CTV cut 105 jobs in late November, a move that affected CTV News. In an entertainment move, but one related to the tough advertising climate, it put the summer juggernaut Canadian Idol on hold.  The Globe and Mail, another division of CTV Globemedia, announced a hiring freeze.

For quick updates on media job losses, follow CanMediaLayoffs and TheMediaIsDying (U.S.), both on Twitter.

I tried to cover Canadian cuts, but it got overwhelming and depressing.

However, I think one can say that whatever the troubles are here, the U.S. news media are in far worse shape.

3. The human rights/free speech imbroglio

The cases of Maclean's magazine (a controversial book excerpt) and the Western Standard (the Muhammad cartoons)  in their dealings with Canada's Muslim community triggered great debate about whether human rights commissions should have a role in regulating speech.

The four Muslim law students launched complaints against Maclean's with three different commissions, the Ontario, B.C. and Canadian HRCs. Their complaint -- which went to a hearing in B.C. -- failed in all three jurisdictions, although the Ontario HRC seemed to be the most sympathetic.

But to me, the key question is whether HRCs are the proper forum in which to deal with speech that is merely offensive (if the Mark Steyn book excerpt "The Future Belongs To Islam" that ran in Maclean's had been declared "hate literature" by an HRC ruling, then Canada would have declared itself to be Saudi Arabia).

In my opinion, hate speech should be regulated by the Criminal Code, a view endorsed in a late November report on the issue by lawyer Richard Moon. Hate speech and offensive speech aren't the same thing, although people such as the Toronto Star's Haroon Siddiqui appear to use them interchangably.

As I've said before, if the goal is to produce journalism that offends no one, then we've really lost sight of the importance of free speech.

However, I also don't like the idea of mainstream media outlets being bully pulpits. It would be usual to have some well-researched, non-partisan review about the coverage of Canadian minority groups by the mainstream media to see whether cries of "Islamophobia" (i.e. coverage we don't like) have merit or not.

And finally, one area where the news media really fell down in its coverage of this story is in not challenging Ezra Levant's claim that his bout with the Alberta HRC cost him $100,000. In what, self-promotion costs? And if he was determined to be a knob about it and drag the process out, who's fault is that?

As a final twist, CanWest reported on Dec. 7 that Imam Syed Soharwardy, who launched then withdrew the complaint against the Western Standard over its decision to reprint the Muhammad cartoons, decided to launch a free speech centre to provide a forum for debating such issues.

"I wish we could have sat down at that time and talked it out rather than me going to a human rights complaint and Mr. Levant writing about me in the media and on the website," Soharwardy says. "I think it would have helped us both."

4. The Dion-CTV Atlantic interview

This involved the Oct. 9 interview of then-Liberal Leader Stephane Dion by CTV Atlantic anchor Steve Murphy in the dying days of the federal election campaign. The interview got off to several false starts. Someone junior told the Dion camp those false starts would not be broadcast, but senior CTV News management decided to broadcast the interview in its entirety. Here's a CTV story from the time. In an Oct. 11 column, then-Toronto Star editor-in-chief Fred Kuntz criticized Murphy's conduct of the interview.

It's hard to say in retrospect whether this interview was a game-changer. The news coverage of the interview may have damaged Dion more than the interview, which would have only been broadcast in Atlantic Canada. Certainly Dion was pissed, telling CTV's Roger Smith on election night that the last person he wanted to talk to was someone from CTV.

But it did raise questions of to-broadcast-or-not-to-broadcast in a situation where CTV News might have come under criticism for whatever course of action it decided upon.

5. The Melissa Fung kidnapping blackout

Canadians learned on Nov. 9 that CBC TV reporter Mellissa Fung had been released by her Afghan kidnappers. Virtually no one had known she had been kidnapped in the first place. All Canadian news organizations agreed to observe a blackout on reporting Fung's kidnapping (some news trickled out through international outlets).

This triggered a hue and cry about whether the news media was protecting its own while callously reporting on the kidnappings of others (however, some of those criticisms come from neo-con bloggers who never have a positive word to say about the MSM).

Then-CBC News publisher John Cruickshank said the following, as quoted in a Canadian Press story:

Asked whether the CBC would have refrained from reporting the kidnapping of someone who is not a journalist, Mr. Cruickshank replied: “If there is a question of harm coming to a victim, it's not our role to intensify the harm. We're on the side of the victim.

“As I said, the practice at the CBC is that if there is a compelling reason to protect victims of crime, we do that.”

In her one-and-only interview with CBC afterwards, Fung was okay with her kidnapping not being reported. The CBC also quoted Terry Waite, the one-time hostage negotiator who was himself held for years in Lebanon, as saying it was acceptable to impose a news blackout in the case of kidnappings.

It would be interesting to note how many times the media has held back on reporting kidnappings of non-media figures until after their release and if it had ever refused to do so despite a plea from the authorities or the victim's loved ones.

I would also note that wide publicity was given to the case of BBC reporter Alan Johnston, held captive for months in the Gaza Strip.

However, these matters are case-specific. The key question is whether the news media uses the same standards for the kidnappings of non-journalists as it does for its own.

In a footnote, the Globe and Mail reported on Nov. 13 about the apparent abduction of a Canadian freelance journalist in Pakistan. Coverage had also been given to the capture of Amanda Lindhout in Somalia.

6. Supreme Court expands 'fair comment' defence

The ruling in the case of B.C. radio show host Rafe Mair and WIC Radio Ltd. and Christian activist Kari Simpson is a major victory for freedom of expression in this country.

In a 9-0 ruling, the court established an "honest belief" defence.

Here's two blog postings from the time.

June 29 - Supreme Court expands fair comment defence

July 4 - Editorial roundup on the 'fair comment' defence

This quote from Justice Ian Binnie, who wrote the ruling for the court, got some traction in certain circles:

"We live in a free country where people have as much right to express outrageous and ridiculous opinions as moderate ones."

7. The privacy lawsuit over the Jan Won 'maid' series

In 2006, former Globe and Mail reporter Jan Wong did a first-person series in which she went undercover to work as a maid.

A family that employed Wong sued both her and the Globe for invasion of privacy.

In mid-September, the Globe lost a motion to dismiss. Here is an excerpt of a Sept. 12 Toronto Star story on the ruling:

"Charter values will take into account the privacy interests of the plaintiffs, but also the ability of investigative journalists to play their role in a free and democratic society," Justice David Aston wrote in a five-page ruling released yesterday.

"Where to draw the lines when the Charter values butt up against one another ought to be decided after a full hearing, not in Motions Court."

This could turn into a big story in 2009 or beyond, whenever a trial is held and a judgment issued (I'm guessing it will eventually end up before an appeal court).

If the plaintiffs win, it would put a significant chill on investigative reporting.

8. Ontario Court of Appeal upholds limited right to source protection

In December 2004, Justice David Crane fined Hamilton Spectator reporter Ken Peters $31,000 for refusing to identify a confidential source during a civil trial.

In March, the Ontario Court of Appeal overturned Crane's ruling.

Not only did the court find Crane didn't follow procedure, it accepted arguments from the media side that the Constitutional right to freedom of the press had to be considered in such cases. From the CP story referenced in the blog post above:

... The Ontario Court of Appeal stopped short of granting blanket protection for reporters who protect sources but did rule that the Charter applies to matters of journalist-informant confidentiality.

"I am unable to accept the submission of the Attorney General for Ontario urging us to decide this case without reference to the Charter,'' the judgment reads. "Charter rights and values are at stake.''

Because the confidentiality of a journalist's sources implicates the Charter, "every effort should be made to minimize the impact upon those rights and values,'' the judgment added.

The court also agreed that forcing reporters to divulge confidential sources can have a "chilling effect'' on sources and news gathering.

"It is sufficiently apparent that the likely effect of revealing a journalist's confidential source will be to discourage, from coming forward, other potential sources,'' the judgment reads.

The media doesn't always get a friendly ride from the courts in these cases. In a March 5 editorial, the Globe and Mail urged the National Post to appeal an Ontario Court of Appeal ruling that upheld an RCMP search warrant looking for evidence about who might have sent former N-P reporter Andrew Macintosh a forged document aimed at implicating former prime minister Jean Chretien in the Shawinigate mess.

While the court acknowledged that journalists have a right to protect their confidential sources, in appropriate cases, its words suggests that it is dismissive of that right.

In a commentary published March 4 in the Globe, Ryerson University j-prof John Miller argued the court achieved the correct balance in this case between press freedom and the needs of the police to investigate crime.

In late March, the N-P announced it would appeal the ruling to the Supreme Court of Canada.

Expect to see mention of this and other source protection cases appear in future versions of this roundup. This issue has hardly exhausted itself.

9. CRTC approves 'temporary' cut in news coverage for Quebec broadcaster

Remstar Diffusion bought the TQS network in Quebec and had a small favour to ask of the CRTC -- allow it to cut back on local news. Those cuts would result in the loss of 270 jobs.

The CRTC agreed. From a June 26 news release:

The Commission has accepted Remstar's proposal to replace traditional newscasts with a new concept that features local programming in which current events are discussed and analyzed. At least two hours of local news will be included as part of this programming each week in Montreal and Quebec.

For the stations in Sherbrooke, Trois-Rivières and Saguenay, the CRTC is requiring Remstar to increase its commitment to broadcast local news from 50 minutes each week to one hour. Over and above these amounts, Remstar will have to broadcast at least 30 minutes of news programming every Saturday and Sunday on all TQS-affiliated stations.

While these amounts are much lower when compared to other conventional television stations, the Commission recognizes that TQS has suffered, and continues to suffer, important monetary losses. For this reason, it has allowed for a temporary measure on an exceptional basis in order to give Remstar an opportunity to improve TQS's financial situation.

From the CP story (a snippet of which is archived on this blog):

TQS journalists were visibly upset after hearing the news.

"They told us the news division was no longer part of their vision for the company to survive," reporter Marie-Claude Julien said in an interview.

This will bear watching in 2009 to see whether this situation was a one-off or a trend.

10. Globe and Mail breaks down Internet-newspaper wall, further embraces community, unlocks much online content

I believe the Globe was the first Canadian newspaper to have an Internet-only newsroom. It announced this fall that it would roll the online staff into the main newsroom where there would be centralized decision-making about how a given story or issue would be covered.

This isn't necessarily revolutionary. The CBC is slowly moving towards integrating its newsrooms. Quebecor has made similar noise, as have some CanWest properties, about many platforms but one newsroom.

What does mark a departure is the Globe also named Mathew Ingram as its communities editor. This marks a further evolution in the "news as conversation" model the Globe first embraced in 2005.

Now, it would be interesting to see if the Globe's moves are paying dividends in terms of building the type of audience it wants (it's not really a mass-market news organization, so having the biggest share of the overall audience isn't likely).

Another question is, will the conversation become more of a two-way one?

Reporters and columnists don't seem to ever really respond to comments attached to stories. I don't think reporters should get into virtual shouting matches with trolls, but why not reward good behaviour by answering reasonable questions raised in comments?

The Globe already does online q-and-as with editors, columnists and some reporters, but will they go the extra step and make it an everyday part of every story?

And finally, the Globe bowed to commercial reality by allowing access to its columnists -- significant because it had been an ardent believer that content shouldn't be entirely free. However, it evolved its pay-per-view option to allow access to a digital version of the print newspaper and membership in Globeinvestor Gold.

The NYT, which had paywalled its columnists, gave up in September 2007 -- and got a huge traffic boost as a result. It would be interesting to know how the Globe's numbers changed.

11. Frank has left the building

Frank -- a force for nasty wit, useful gossip and rough justice (on its good days) in the worlds of media, business and politics -- finally gives up the ghost. Publisher Michael Bate said he couldn't make the economics work in a world awash in free, online gossip. So who will prank Conrad Black now?

Here's some related postings:

Oct. 28 - And yet another farewell to Frank

Nov. 3 - More farewell thoughts on Frank from the NYT

12. Halifax paid-circulation daily shuts down, reinvents self as freebie

Transcontinental Media shut down the Halifax Daily News, replacing it with a free-circ. newspaper. The newspaper employed 92 people. Most of those lost their jobs in the shuffle.

I really should track down some stats on the growth of freebie papers in Canada.

When I'm on the TTC subway here in Toronto, I'm the only person in my car reading a paid newspaper most mornings (I subscribe to the Globe, if you must know).

13. L'affaire Mallick / Wente and 'savages'

There are limits to how satirical one can be when writing for the website of the nation's public broadcaster.

Heather Mallick, Canada's left-wing Ann Coulter, took aim at U.S. Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin, a notoriously difficult target to lampoon.

Interestingly, the CBC originally defended the column (including Mary Sheppard, the site's executive producer). But as the controversy grew, then-CBC News publisher John Cruickshank stepped in after ombudsman Vince Carlin issued his report.

Carlin noted that many of Mallick's statements had no basis in fact. Cruickshank pitched in with this:

Mallick's column is a classic piece of political invective. It is viciously personal, grossly hyperbolic and intensely partisan.

And because it is all those things, this column should not have appeared on the CBCNews.ca site.

He also said there would be new editing procedures and an expansion in the diversity of voices.

There was no follow-up communication from Cruickshank (at least none I could find) explaining how this was actually implemented.

If someone could explain if any of these changes actually were implemented, I'd be most grateful.

Meanwhile, the Globe and Mail's Margaret Wente, an old foe of Mallick's, put her foot in it with an Oct. 24 column sort-of defending Dick Pound's use of the word "sauvages" in relation to First Nations people.

In a Dec. 30 column, Wente wrote:

The most contentious column of the year contained the word "savages." It tried a defence of Olympics executive Dick Pound, who was denounced for an offhand comment he'd made (in French) that Canada had once been a land of " sauvages." I tried to argue that European culture of the 1600s had in some ways been more "advanced" than North American aboriginal cultures of the same time.

This was not a popular view, to say the least, nor did I argue it especially well, although it might not have made a difference if I had. ...

This had UWO journalism professor Paul Benedetti write a commentary entitled Strange bedfellows: Mallick, Wente and the case for offensive journalism, published Nov. 18 at j-source:

Wente has been on the receiving end for her columns, which often irk many readers in this country, and she can give as good as she gets. So can Mallick.

The problem comes when the aggrieved parties (usually self-identified) campaign to silence columnists. Whether the columnists are labeled as too right, too left, too strident, too extreme, too inflammatory is beside the point. The demand for their muzzling, demotion, or firing, can, abetted by the power of the Internet and fueled by blogs, chat rooms, email campaigns, message boards and You Tube videos, be overwhelming for some organizations. ...

Fired reporters don’t write stories, dismissed columnists don’t write columns and threatened or scared journalists don’t speak their minds. And that is everyone’s loss.

14. The return of Krista Erickson!

This is a followup on a huge kerfuffle from the fall of 2007.

Erickson got pulled from the Ottawa bureau after it became known she had emailed questions to a Liberal MP to ask of former prime minister Brian Mulroney, called before a parliamentary committee to testify about his relationship with Karlheinz Schreiber, a lobbyist who had paid Mulroney $300,000 in cash in hotel room meetings.

The Tories went bananas over this.

CBC ombudsman Vince Carlin said he found no evidence of bias or partisanship in Erickson's actions. He found her problem to be inexperience.

So, how do inexperienced reporters make it to the Corpse's Hill bureau anyways? If she wasn't ready for the job, management shouldn't have placed her there.

I also wondered how Carlin could write his report without citing the opinion by Marcel Pepin, then Radio Canada's ombudsman, about whether B.C.-based national reporter Terry Milewski's relations with an APEC protester in 1997 violated his ability to be considered impartial (Pepin cleared Milewski).

But then again, perhaps the CBC don't want people within its organization to see or remember the Pepin report (it certainly didn't want to share it with me). 

This Jan. 23, 2008 post adds some background on the Erickson file.

15. User-generated content becomes mainstream

CTV.ca launched MyNews in April, a system that allows people to easily upload their photos and video for use online.

CBCNews.ca had an acting senior producer in charge of UGC, as some call it. Such content is on display on its Your Voice page.

UGC became highly valuable for some stories such as Toronto's propane blast.

Bill Dunphy of the Hamilton Spectator had some extensive thoughts on using such content.

16. Newspaper websites become more multimedia

Globeandmail.com had been using Flash photo galleries for some time, but I believe they started shooting their own video documentaries this year (I'll have to confirm that; might have been 2007).

The Globe really pushed the envelope of multimedia in March with its Talking to the Taliban series back in March. An Afghan researcher took a video camera into five districts of Kandahar province where he did proxy interviews of 42 Taliban fighters for Globe and Mail reporter Graeme Smith.

The online series heavily used video and photo to tell the story. It won an Online News Association award for best investigative report, large site.

TheStar.com has also been prominently using video this year.

On Nov. 3, the night before the U.S. election, the overnight lead item on nytimes.com was a video entitled Picking A President (see this Twitter post for a link).