Thank you for the question.
The journalistic standards and practices have been developed over many years. They are under regular review. With social media and different things changing in our industry, we have to constantly make sure they're up to date.
They are founded on five critical principles: impartiality, fairness, balance, integrity and accuracy. These are absolutely fundamental. They are common to CBC and Radio-Canada newsrooms and they inform everything we do.
Today is our annual public meeting. I have to mention that Adrienne Arsenault said in a clip the most moving thing I've ever heard. She said that of all journalistic practices, it is integrity that informs everything our journalists do. The integrity speaks to balancing the impact of a story, trying to understand the source, trying to make sure we acknowledge sources, and being as fair as possible so Canadians receive the best possible fact-based information. They can then judge the news as they see fit.
To the question of how that works.... I'm not a journalist. I was a producer before I had the privilege of serving in this role. I've had the honour of witnessing an assignment room at CBC/Radio-Canada. That's where, every morning at 80 stations across this country, managing editors are sitting down with their teams of journalists, producers and researchers. They talk about the news: fast-breaking news, hard-issue news, investigative news and international news. They discuss, balance and consider, and that's where the integrity comes in. They determine what they feel they must be focusing on for that particular day.