Canada eyes Australia’s media code to pay for news; wants more ‘transparency’
In this cross-posting from The Conversation, Andrea Carson, Associate Professor, Department of Politics, Media and Philosophy, La Trobe University, writes Australia’s News Media Bargaining Code has garnered global interest – but the Canadians want a model with more transparency.
Google and Meta have reportedly paid more than A$200 million to Australian news outlets since the Morrison government introduced the groundbreaking News Media Bargaining Code a year ago. Yet Canada boasts that its own version of the code will do better.
Source: Shuttershock
Canadian Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez claims the online news bill he intends to introduce in the Ottawa parliament within months will also force Google and Meta to pay media outlets for third-party news content on their sites. But he argues it will be a “more transparent” version of the Australian code.
His key criticism of the Australian version was that it handed power to Treasurer Josh Frydenberg through “designation”, rather than to an independent regulator. This, he says, will force big technology companies to negotiate deals with media outlets:
