The announcement concerns the Local Journalism Initiative, set to expire March 31.
Pascale St-Onge, the Minister of Canadian Heritage, will make a funding announcement concerning the Local Journalism Initiative (LJI) Friday at a summit on the future of regional information, hosted by the Cégep de Jonquière’s art and media technology graduate school and la Fédération nationale des communications et de la culture in Quebec. The announcement will take place at 11:45 a.m. ET.
Media organizations across the country, including BayFM, have been lobbying government to renew the five year program, launched in 2019, which funds journalists in underserved areas of the country known as news "deserts." Over 400 journalists serving some 1,400 communities have been facing an uncertain future as the March 31 funding end date draws near with no answers from the federal government. This after widespread job cuts across the industry, including 4,800 at Bell Canada, owner of stations like CTV.
BayFM has employed a full-time reporter through the Local Journalism Initiative since April 2023.
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