When the infamous Aspertorials started,
things really got nasty on the CanWest ship. Editorial page
editor Peter Hadekel at the Montreal Gazette immediately
requested and received a reassignment; then, 77 journalists
at the paper published a letter denouncing the national editorials
as reducing the “diversity of opinions and the breadth
of debate that to date has been offered to readers [of CanWest
papers] across Canada.”
Three days later, a “gag order” memo was delivered
to Gazette staff. Journalists started withholding bylines in protest.
Ottawa Citizen reporters did the same after the firing of publisher
Russell Mills, as did Regina Leader-Post reporters after a report
on a speech critical of CanWest was censored. All ran the risk
of being fired or suspended.
The gag order given to the Gazette staff now extends across the
CanWest media empire.
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