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, which is 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 maritime border (between Greenland and Canada), which has not been without controversy, but it 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 1.3 square kilometres. We were, however, able to resolve it not with weapons, but with whiskey.
Canada’s Smart News Media Policies
For many years, I was the 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 the World Association of News Publishers (WAN-IFRA), that responsibility is global, and it is one that 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.
The AI Challenge
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 artificial intelligence 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.
However, AI also represents a serious challenge that calls for a robust regulatory environment. The “strip mining” of news articles by AI systems, without fair compensation or attribution, threatens the economic foundation of journalism. Canada has led the world on news media policy, but the fight isn’t over yet. Policymakers must now turn their attention to ensuring that AI development respects intellectual property and supports a sustainable news ecosystem.
