The Canadian government is planning to amend the country’s copyright laws to allow political parties to use media news footage in political ads, according to media reports Thursday (October 9).
An internal document of the ruling Conservative government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper outlines the reasoning behind the amendments and the probable reaction to them.
In the past, the Conservatives have been told by television networks they could not use news footage without authorization. This would circumvent that obstacle during election campaigning. The next federal election will be in 2015.
Faced with negative reaction about the proposed copyright exception, a government minister insisted the government would not allow television networks to “censor what can and cannot be broadcast to Canadians.”
RCI’s Wojtek Gwiazda has a report.
ListenMore information:
CTV News – Conservatives to change copyright law, allowing free use of news content in political ads – here
Global News – Media shouldn’t ‘censor’ news content from appearing in political ads without permission, Tories say – here
Internal document – New Copyright Exception for Political Advertising – here
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