Public Broadcasting Between Voice and Loyalty

• In Event: "Exit, Voice and Loyalty:" How State and Power Dynamics Impact the Development of Media Systems and Concepts of Participation

Abstract

Sovereign states will use whatever powers they can muster to preserve their internal territorial and political integrity. In the case of liberal democratic states where independent pluralist media enjoy legal guarantees and protection, this can be challenging when the integrity of the state is called into question by national minorities. The challenge is particularly acute in countries with an established arms-length public broadcasting system. Is the role of the public broadcaster to promote loyalty to the state, or is it to give voice to all political actors including entities whose raison d’être challenges the very integrity of the state itself? This question will be explored through the historical lens of the Canadian government’s effort to instrumentalize the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation in order to contain the rise of a separatist movement in Quebec in the 1960s and 70s. The case of Canada and Quebec is of obvious relevance to the contemporary context of independence movements in Scotland/the UK, Catalonia/Spain and elsewhere.

Author

• Marc Raboy, McGill U