Rules for Media during Provincial Election

Hello,

In preparation for the 40^th Provincial General Election,  http://www.elections.bc.ca/docs/2013-election-calendar.pdf ,  it is important that media organizations are aware of their obligations under British Columbia’s Election Act.

Please review Elections BC’s Media Obligations under the Election Act (862 (12/11)).  http://www.elections.bc.ca/docs/guidebooks/862.pdf   This guide explains the sections of the Act that apply to the media.  In particular, it clarifies the Act’s provisions about election advertising and opinion polls.

Should you have further questions, please contact Greg Macdonald by phone at 250-952-6164 or email at Greg.Macdonald@elections.bc.ca.

Thank you,

Don Main

Communications Manager

Elections BC

Phone: 250-387-1709

Cell: 778-678-0181

Toll-free: 1-800-661-8683 / TTY 1-888-456-5448

Fax: 250-387-3578

Location: Suite 100 - 1112 Fort Street, Victoria

Email: Don.Main@elections.bc.ca

Website: elections.bc.ca

Free Interviewing webinar May 8-9

Join the Reynolds Institute for a free webinar on interviewing!

The interview is the journalist’s most fundamental and essential tool. It is how you gain information, ensure accuracy, hold people accountable, archive history, bear witness, and reflect community and so much more.  Yet interviewing is a skill more assumed than taught, studied or practiced. In this interactive two-part webinar, Pulitzer Prize winner Jacqui Banaszynski will explore the core purposes, techniques and ethics of the interview process.
She will reveal different interview approaches that work best in different situations and that apply to any genre of journalism.  On Day 2, she will focus on interviews that produce not just information, but true stories, rich with character, scene and detail. Reporters, editors, journalism students and professors will find this practical training useful for their work.
Date of the webinar: May 8-9, 2013.    

For more information, visit http://businessjournalism.org/2012/09/06/getting-the-goods-interviews-that-work-online-may-8-9/

Radio Content about Birth Control and Sexually Transmitted Diseases

On 10 January 2013 15:18, CFBX Radio <radio8music@yahoo.com> wrote: Hi folks, looking for some clarity on the CRTC regulations regarding broadcast of material related to birth control and STDs. The CRTC regulations I have say: The following items are prohibited from being mentioned on air: - any program about the subject of birth control or venereal disease, unless that program is presented in a manner appropriate to the medium of broadcasting. This is very vague. Does anyone have specifics on what this regulation means? Freya Zaltz, Legal Advisor to the National Campus and Community Radio Association, replied:

I haven't been able to find much in the past that sheds light on this.  I think it's a very outdated policy that the CRTC just hasn't taken steps to update in recent years.  This is what I think the CRTC currently expects with respect to this type of programming:

(a) consider your intended audience and your potential audience when determining the content of the program and whether it's justifiable and appropriate;

(b) during daytime hours, limit sexually explicit content to material that's presented in an informative and educational manner, and to only what's required in order to present the material accurately and responsibly (i.e. not sensational or gratuitously graphic);

(c) at all times of day but particularly during daytime hours, provide warnings before and during the program so that listeners are aware of the subject matter of the program (just a simple statement that the program contains sexual content is sufficient so listeners can decide if it's appropriate to keep listening); and

(d) avoid unbalanced programming that condemns people for certain behaviour, tells listeners how they ought to behave, or illustrates sexism or homophobia or other forms of discrimination;

(e) focus on providing an informed and balanced analysis and discussion of options and resources.

Some may disagree with this, but I think it's what the CRTC would expect if they had to investigate complaints from listeners.

Here's a link to a page set up by public radio freelancers in the US, about how to set up a small recording studio.  It's been recently updated, to include things like USB mics.

http://transom.org/?p=23904

Broadcasting Audio Without Permission

 Q: If a programmer were to air an hour of audio from a video online without permission and/or attribution, what would be the risks to the station?  Could it affect our licence?

A: Copyright infringement is not a regulatory issue, so it would not affect your broadcasting licence.  The risks to the station would be that the copyright holder could sue the station for copyright infringement, and could be entitled to monetary damages.  The quantification of damages would depend on the type of material, who holds the copyright, and the impact of the infringement.  Aside from damages, the cost of defending against such an action would be extremely prohibitive for a non-profit radio station.

Attribution in this context would be insufficient if the station or programmer doesn't also get permission from the copyright holder.  Failing to get permission is a much bigger problem than failing to attribute after permission is granted.

(Answer is by Freya Zaltz, legal advisor to the National Campus and Community Radio Association)

Rebroadcasting of audio clips from other media.

In most cases, you need permission from the copyright holder to air their audio. However, there is a type of exception, under Fair Dealing: "The rules governing this are set out in the section of the Copyright Act pertaining to the Fair Dealing exception (s. 29). It has not changed as a result of the recent copyright reforms. "Under Fair Dealing, you are entitled to use very short portions of copyrighted written or audio material only for purposes of criticism, review, news reporting, education, or satire, as long as it is properly attributed at the time the material is used. Other uses that don't fall within the Fair Dealing exception require permission from the copyright holder before the material can be broadcast. "In print, very short usually means no more than a few sentences or paragraphs, so the maximum length of an audio clip under Fair Dealing is likely somewhere around 10-15 seconds, but no more than is necessary to accomplish the intended purpose." - Freya Zaltz, legal advisor to the National Campus and Community Radio Association

Record Broadcast Quality Audio on Your Mobile Devices

HiFiCorder.com has a free and a paid version ($5 for the paid version) that will allow you to choose up to 44,100MHz sampling (that is broadcast-quality) in your recordings. It can be installed on an Android phone or tablet or an iPhone or iPad. http://hificorder.com/ When it's selected you get a nice big red button to push and the recording starts. Also RecForge free audio recorder software - only for Android GooglePlay (PlayStore). https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=dje073.android.audiorecorderlite&hl=en RecForge can show you the wave form after it's recorded and let you choose the playback speed. Richard Vickery has tried both of them. Try them out and see what you think.