Global News has cut nearly 80 media jobs across Canada, and four of those jobs are in the Okanagan.
Veteran reporter Blaine Gaffney, along with two local cameramen, one in 91大黄鸭 and one in Vernon, were laid off, sources confirmed to the 91大黄鸭 Capital News. The station is expected to use VJs going forward.
Camera operators, reporters, anchors, control room staff, make-up artists and other production crew received layoff notices in newsrooms across Canada, with Global鈥檚 most successful station in Vancouver taking the biggest hit with 21 job cuts, according to a statement released today by Unifor.
Unifor representatives highlighted concerns about the continued erosion of local news as Corus-owned Global News cuts nearly 80 jobs across Canada, including 69 Unifor members.
鈥淔ewer journalists will be out gathering news from every region from Vancouver to Halifax,鈥� said Unifor national president Jerry Dias. 鈥淚f the Maritime newscasts now come from Toronto鈥攈ow can you still call that local news?鈥�
鈥淭he federal government stood by while Canada鈥檚 local newspapers struggled and now our members in TV news are being asked to do more to fill the same number of programming hours with fewer resources, all on this government鈥檚 watch.鈥�
鈥淭he CRTC paved the way for the cuts announced today by watering down the obligations for big media companies like Corus to protect local news and it鈥檚 proving disastrous.鈥�
Broadcasters in Canada are obligated to air local TV news as a condition of license but last year the CRTC softened requirements that they maintain historical levels of programming, and decided not to set rules requiring 鈥渇eet on the street鈥� coverage, leaving media companies free to cut local news jobs over the term of their five-year broadcasting licenses.
Unifor is asking the CRTC to review local news and make strong local coverage a binding condition of license, before it鈥檚 too late, as part of the union鈥檚 ongoing #savelocalnews campaign.
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