The CRTC has taken a different approach with its recent approval of 9 non-Canadian Chinese language services, including one with a previous history of abusive programming. The CRTC found that CCTV-4 programming in 1999 and 2001 was inappropriate, but it was unable to conclude that this is still the case today.
In light of the age of the stories and the absence of any concrete evidence as to similar comment since, the Commission is unable to conclude, with a reasonable degree of certainty, that the stories in question are typical of content currently aired on CCTV-4.
The CRTC accepted an undertaking from the broadcaster’s agent, China International Television Corporation, that it “obeys the laws of every country in which its services are broadcast and Canada will be no exception” and that it “will comply with the provisions of the relevant codes that govern Canadian broadcasters.”
The Commission will expect CCTV-4 to ensure that abusive comment is not aired when the service is distributed in Canada, failing which, the service could be removed from the digital lists.
It is a similar, but different approach to apply Canadian standards to programming on Canadian broadcast distribution networks.
1 Cited in paragraph 56 of CRTC Broadcast Public Notice 2006-166.
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