N.B. Conservative leader calls for review of media holdings
Last Updated: Friday, October 26, 2007 | 6:18 PM AT
CBC News
Irving-owned Brunswick News Inc. should be forced to sell off some of its media holdings, says New Brunswick Conservative Leader Jeannot Volpé.
Brunswick News owns all of the English-language daily newspapers in the province, as well as most of the weeklies, plus some radio stations.
"I don't believe that it's in the best interest of New Brunswick to have huge monopoly," Volpé told CBC News. "If you control the media, if you control the message and you control some industry, it's hard for small business because you can control everything."
Volpé is calling for a Senate review of media concentration in New Brunswick.
A Senate committee reviewed Canada's news media and released a final report in 2006 that raised concerns about the Irving family's media empire in the province.
The amount of media concentration found in New Brunswick wouldn't be seen as acceptable in any other jurisdiction, Volpé said.
Canadian senators have previously raised concerns about the Irvings' control of the media in New Brunswick.
Senator Keith Davey raised the issue in a report released in the 1970s.
In the 1980s, the Irvings also came under fire from the Kent Commission.
A review of the situation may force Brunswick News to sell some of its holdings and open the door to more media diversity in the province, Volpé said.
Brunswick News takes former publisher to court
The comments come as Brunswick News is seeking a court injunction against one of its former publishers to prevent him from contacting 15 key local advertisers, contractors and correspondents in Carleton County while he tries to launch a new publication.
William Kenneth Langdon resigned as publisher with the Woodstock Bugle-Observer after working for Irving newspapers for over a decade.
In his resignation letter, now filed with the courts, Langdon said he had grown disillusioned with Brunswick News management practices and would be joining with a business partner to launch the Carleton Free Press.
The court documents go on to allege that a Brunswick News vice-president, Victor Mlodecki, had stated at a meeting he was prepared to set up a $1-million fund to drive a competing local flyer distributor out of business.
Brunswick News lawyer Stephen Hutchison said the lawsuit against Langdon is not about competition in the newspaper business.
According to Brunswick News court documents, Langdon took hundreds of files from the Woodstock Bugle-Observer, including budgets, advertising and personnel information.
The documents were so extensive, they formed a complete guide to start a competing paper, Hutchison told the Court of Queen's Bench in Saint John.
None of the allegations has been proven in court.
Judge Peter Glennie has reserved his decision on the injunction request until next Friday.
A trial date for the lawsuit has not yet been set. It will be held in Woodstock.
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