On behalf of the Association des journalistes indépendants du Québec, the AJIQ, I thank you for giving us this forum in which to describe our reality and our needs.
The culture sections and the special sections of Le Devoir, professional periodicals, L'Actualité, Radio-Canada, podcasts. I could go on. Did you know that a hundred media outlets in Quebec and in Canada are filled with the talent and professionalism of often invisible freelancers?
Our reality is to deliver research files, in-depth articles, photos and radio reports and to be paid only when the finished product is delivered. Research, interviews, writing, corrections and work on location are all obvious and vital tasks in quality journalism. But as freelancers, we are not paid to do them. Our per-page rate, meaning 250 words, has not changed for 10 years, for 20 years for some media. Some still pay the equivalent of $50 per page, often hardly more. According to a 2022 survey, 29% of us still, even today, work for minimum wage. Freelancers in Quebec earn a salary of about $31,000 per year, despite our strong qualifications. Eighty per cent of us have university degrees. To top it all off, late payments are unfortunately not uncommon.
Finally, Meta's block on journalistic content in Canada does nothing to improve our situation. The impact on media visibility and, by extension, on our work is considerable.
The media depend on our expertise a great deal. They do not have the budgets they need to rely wholly on their staff journalists to fill all their pages and to meet all their editorial needs. Many call on freelancers to provide full and varied coverage. Freelancers are neither staff, nor artists, nor business people. We fall between the cracks in the system.
What is sad in all this is that many freelancers are tending to reduce their freelance work and turn to other endeavours because they are afraid that they will not be able to pay the rent or put food on the table at the end of the month. In Quebec, almost 60% of independent journalists have some other professional activity. This is killing journalism, slowly but surely. Fewer freelancers means fewer journalists and therefore less protection for democracy.
As links in the media chain, we are free, of course. But do we have to be the weak links?
For 35 years, the AJIQ has been arguing for the improvement of working conditions for freelance journalists as indispensable information workers. But we need you, as members of the government, to implement measures in support of our cause.
What are the solutions?
The conditions under which the $100 million that Google pays to all information media could be adjusted. For some reason unknown to us, freelancers were excluded from the criteria by which that money is distributed. The federal government correct its course by putting freelancers back on the list of eligible journalists. A number of local, indigenous and ethnic media are also excluded from the funding. This does not meet the spirit of the law, which stipulates that the money must be distributed fairly and in a way that represents Canada's entire media ecosystem.
The Canadian journalism labour tax credit should also be redistributed. Independent media are growing in numbers and they too count on the work of freelancers. To repeat, they are as many journalists as those on the payroll of the major media outlets. Let us not forget that, in Canada, the federal government pays 25% of the salary of staff journalists, but nothing for independent ones.
Could we not imagine employment status like the casual entertainment workers in France? Freelancers would be eligible for employment insurance, which would kick in after a certain number of journalism contracts. In that way, they would feel less stress the next month even if an article were not picked up. And they could stay in journalism.
In recent years, we have been fortunate to have a bursary program established by the provincial government. If Ottawa had a program like that, many freelancers could be fairly paid for their work in supplying media.
One of our strongest claims is still for a legislated fee schedule. The schedule could, of course, be adjusted for the size, the circulation and the budget of the media outlets. It would accommodate different formats such as podcasts and lengthy reporting. In an ideal world, the fees would be adjusted for inflation each year.
Finally, independent journalists should be included in legislation that already exists. This would allow them to properly negotiate their working conditions. It would also require the media industry to pay decent basic fees, as is the case for members of the Union des artistes. In 2023, there was an attempt to have us included in the Status of the Artist Act. Unfortunately, the attempt was not successful. A separate act for independent journalists could be a possibility, since our working conditions are specific and unique.
As a matter of urgency, the government and the entire media industry must recognize the essential contribution of freelance journalists in Quebec and in Canada and work with the specific aim of improving the conditions under which they work and live. Measures to ensure that independent journalism survives are required. Supporting freelancers means ensuring the diversity, the quality and the vitality of information as a fundamental pillar of our democracy.
As members of the government, you alone are in a position to ensure that we, as the free links in the media chain, are no longer the weak links, but rather full participants, with appropriate recognition and support.
