Evidence of meeting #130 for Subcommittee on International Human Rights in the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was funding.
A video is available from Parliament.
1:40 p.m.
Ms. Anita Vandenbeld (Ottawa West—Nepean, Lib.)
Thank you very much.
For the last question we'll go to Ms. Hardcastle for three minutes.
1:40 p.m.
NDP
Cheryl Hardcastle NDP Windsor—Tecumseh, ON
Thank you very much.
Mr. Tunley, I'm also just thinking about some of the reporting that was done early on in Myanmar about what was happening to the Rohingya. I know that you mentioned the journalists in distress program, and journalists in exile—two different programs. I don't know how long they've been going on. Maybe you can talk a bit about the challenges, how they've changed.
Also, how are they being funded? Is there any government funding for either of these initiatives? Do you see an opportunity where we could be fortifying journalism through these types of programs?
1:40 p.m.
President, Board of Directors, Canadian Journalists for Free Expression
The answer is that we have been funding our journalists in distress program, which is the more difficult of the two to fund, internally. It comes from our general revenues that we raised from our gala, from our members. We would love to stabilize that funding with either a long-term private or a long-time government funding source. It is critically important work. It's work that no one else is doing. None of the journalist organizations in Canada, other than CJFE, do this. We're very proud of it. It originates from our relationship with the IFEX organization, which I mentioned earlier. It's a wonderful program.
In terms of getting journalists here, for the journalists in exile program, there you have to really deal with major media in terms of their hiring policies. How do you encourage media here to hire a journalist from Iraq, Mexico or wherever? The second thing you have to do is some training. Although the basics of journalism don't change, some of the realities of practice in journalism here do.
1:40 p.m.
NDP
Cheryl Hardcastle NDP Windsor—Tecumseh, ON
I don't have any other questions. Perhaps you want to expand on that. Otherwise, I'm done.
1:45 p.m.
Liberal
Iqra Khalid Liberal Mississauga—Erin Mills, ON
Thank you so much.
I wanted to ask this earlier. In your viewpoint, what are the issues that women journalists deal with that are unique from their male counterparts? What kinds of support systems does your organization provide to women journalists across the world?
1:45 p.m.
President, Board of Directors, Canadian Journalists for Free Expression
I'm obviously not the right person to ask.
I think the answer is that women do face special vulnerabilities especially when they're reporting around the world. We have some wonderfully courageous journalists who have been through that, but we also have some sad stories of the results that can occur. What kinds of supports do we have for that? It's hard to target. It's very hard to devise a program that's aimed at those circumstances. I think the most we can do is to encourage best practices in the major media who have correspondents around the world, to ensure that they have appropriate security and other measures in place to support the work of these journalists.
1:45 p.m.
President, Board of Directors, Canadian Journalists for Free Expression
It's really at the level of the media organizations.
1:45 p.m.
Ms. Anita Vandenbeld (Ottawa West—Nepean, Lib.)
Thank you very much.
Thank you so much, Mr. Tunley, for your expert testimony. I think this has given us some ideas in terms of this study going forward. Thank you for being here through video conference.
We'll now go in camera for 15 minutes to do some committee business.
[Proceedings continue in camera]