A significant media organization in Quebec is in danger of squatting in the area where the provincial legislature is located.
It stop paying rent for the office its political journalists use
In an article from the Global News, the media and telecommunications company Quebecor, located in Montreal, has declared it will stop paying rent for the office its political journalists use in one of the provincial capital’s legislative buildings. The organization, which also owns the newspapers Journal de Montreal and Journal de Quebec as well as the television station TVA, claims that its rent is $8,448 per month, or more than $100,000 per year before taxes.
Jad Barsoum, vice-president of Quebecor, claimed in a letter to the legislature that the company’s rent violates the principles of access and is bad for democratic life.
According to Brent Jolly, president of the Canadian Association of Journalists, media organizations are assessed a yearly fee of $269.86 per square meter of office space by Quebec’s government, known as the National Assembly.
The media industry is in a major crisis, according to Barsoum’s letter, as advertising revenues are falling as a result of competition from websites like Facebook and Google. He claimed that the situation has resulted in job losses at Quebecor, jeopardizes citizens’ access to information, and, more broadly, threatens the vitality of our democracy.
The recent decision by Facebook owner Meta to restrict access to news information on its services in Canada has put more pressure on media companies.
Quebecor is requesting that the National Assembly assist local media by offering free office space for reporters covering politics in response to the problems faced by news organizations.
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Revenue increased by $283.3 million, or 25.4%, in the second quarter of 2023
The expectations made by Quebecor seem reasonable, at least when compared to the circumstances in other provinces, many of which provide reporters with free workstations, albeit ones that are far smaller and frequently shared.
Members of the press gallery, a term used to refer to political journalists who cover legislatures, have been given three single-person offices in the basement of Province House in Halifax by the Nova Scotia House of Assembly. A little communal area upstairs is also accessible to journalists.
In a report from Montreal, political reporters don’t have specific offices in the Legislative Assembly building in the capital of New Brunswick, but the press gallery, whose members must pay a $100 annual fee, has a desk area in a nearby building.
For members of the press gallery who pay the $150 annual fee, the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia includes offices for the print, radio, and television media. Non-full-time members who are journalists are welcome to utilize the common area with no cost.
There is also a free-to-use space with 25 desks for journalists on Parliament Hill in Ottawa.
Jolly affirms his agreement that legislative press offices need to be more reasonably priced for the media considering the public good that journalists accomplish with their coverage of political news.
Alfred Hermida, a professor at the University of British Columbia’s school of journalism, asserted that Quebecor’s assertions of a media crisis are false in light of the company’s successes in its other business segments.
Despite a fall in income in certain of its media businesses, the company reported on Thursday that its revenue increased by $283.3 million, or 25.4%, in the second quarter of 2023 compared to the same three-month period in 2022. The bonus comes after Quebecor bought the telecom firm Freedom Mobility.
However, Quebecor CEO Pierre Karl Peladeau argued that it is illogical to think that one division of his organization.
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