How Canada can continue to lead on news policy

As a proud Dane, I have long admired the warm relations and respect between my country and our close, like-minded friends in Canada.

At the end of the Second World War, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill wanted to stop the Red Army’s westward advance. The 1st Canadian Parachute Battalion was sent to do the job. Canadian troops encountered the Red Army in Wismar, located on Germany’s Baltic coast. The Canadians effectively blocked a Soviet advance into the Kingdom of Denmark — while that was long ago, it will never be forgotten.

We share a 3,000-kilometre border, which has not been without controversy, but the issue has always been based on good humour and friendship. From 1973 to 2022, we “fought” over Hans Island, which is located between Ellesmere Island and Greenland and measures just 1.2 square kilometres. We were, however, able to resolve the dispute not with weapons, but with whiskey.

For many years, I was CEO of JP/Politiken Media Group, one of the largest media companies in the Nordics. As the employer of 3,000 people, I had a responsibility to ensure the long-term sustainability of the Danish news media ecosystem. Now, as CEO of WAN-IFRA (World Association of News Publishers), that responsibility is global, and it is one I take very seriously.

As I look around the world at countries with smart news media policies, Canada is right up there at the top of the list.

Your Canadian journalism labour tax credit rewards news organizations that invest in their newsrooms. That kind of support is highly targeted and effective. Maintaining it at the current rate of 35 per cent will help ensure that Canadian newsroom employment remains stable, and hopefully grows.

The Online News Act, which is modelled on Australia’s News Media Bargaining Code, is seeing $100 million flowing annually from Google to news businesses. We hope that Meta, following Google, will find a path to provide fair monetary compensation to news businesses and that Canadian news will return to Meta’s platforms.

The Local Journalism Initiative is putting more reporting boots on the ground across Canada — something that is important given your expansive geography. The Province of Ontario’s decision to set aside 25 per cent of its advertising budget for news media is another policy that is inspiring to the rest of the world, and it comes at no additional cost to the provincial treasury.

In short, as I look at what policies countries around the world are adopting to sustain news media, Canada is doing a great many things right.

There is little doubt that AI represents the next major technological revolution. In many respects, it has the potential to strengthen newsrooms’ ability to serve audiences with reliable information. Efficiency gains, in particular, can free up valuable time and resources, allowing journalists to focus more on original reporting rather than internal processes.

At the same time, AI platforms present the news media with significant challenges. As these technologies become increasingly important intermediaries between publishers and audiences, they raise concerns about the sustainability of journalism, the distribution of news content and the economic foundations that support independent reporting.

Recently, WAN-IFRA hosted its annual World News Media Congress. One of the highlights was the keynote address by A.G. Sulzberger, the chairman and publisher of the New York Times.

He stated, “the companies driving AI, already among the richest and most powerful in human history, are consolidating their outsize control over our data and our attention. At the same time, they are failing to embrace a core responsibility that comes with this power — to ensure the public has access to trustworthy news and information.”

A.G. Sulzberger outlined several steps lawmakers around the world should take. First, ensure the currently robust protections for intellectual property are reinforced — not weakened — for the AI era. In other words, Canada should be careful to avoid a text and data mining (TDM) exception to copyright legislation. Second, require bots to identify themselves and constrain their ability to strip websites without permission. Third, require transparency so news organizations know when and how their work is used by the AI companies. Finally, ensure AI companies bear legal responsibility for any defamatory content they generate.

Canada, as a respected global leader in smart media policy, has an opportunity to heed Mr. Sulzberger’s wise words and to lead the world. Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese explicitly ruled out introducing a TDM exception into his country’s copyright laws. Canada should take inspiration from that — and then tackle the other items on Mr. Sulzberger’s list.

Eighty years ago, Canada helped secure Denmark’s place in the free and democratic world. Today, the challenge is different, but the stakes are high. By continuing to lead on news media and AI policy, Canada can once again help defend the democratic values that depend on an informed and engaged public.

» Stig Ørskov is CEO of WAN-IFRA (World Association of News Publishers). This column was first published in the Winnipeg Free Press.