CBC edited a doc for fear of libel and/or litigation. From Jesse Brown at Canadaland (the guy who broke the Jian Ghomeshi story)
“So there you have it. The CBC pulled a documentary from the air when a company objected to footage the public broadcaster had legally licensed from Global. Under pressure from its insurers, the CBC then edited the documentary for a later broadcast and removed criticisms of the company, who claim the CBC told them the doc would be free of criticism. In doing so, the CBC misrepresented the views of one of its subjects without her knowledge or consent.”
That’s a big deal. The subject at hand, Pippa Biddle, reports on her blog how what she said was toned down in the documentary. She did indeed criticize the subject during the interview, but it was cut out.
“Which is, to me, horrifying. If we can’t openly criticize entities in a fair and measured way, not libel, criticism, then we are creating a situation in which for-profit’s and non-profit’s are empowered to do whatever they please without fear.”
And if we can’t trust our public broadcaster, what good is it?
