THE
FACTS
Between
11:00 am and noon Pacific time on September 13, 2006, during the daily Bill
Good morning show on Corus Radio's CKNW-AM (Vancouver), the Vancouver station
ran a live feed from AM940, CINW-AM, the Corus sister station in Montreal. The reason for the interruption of the Bill
Good show was the dramatic breaking news about a shooting crisis at
Early
news reports had indicated, for example, that as many as three shooters had
entered
In
the end, it took the police more than three hours to secure the building,
going floor by floor and room by room; furthermore, it took fully eight hours before
The rampant confusion and reporting contradictions are reflected in the
opening statement from Michael Dean, the Montreal anchor covering the story
on CINW-AM (emphasis added here and in all other broadcast quotations that
follow; the full transcription of the Bill Good show, including the Vancouver
news reports and the live feed from Montreal can be found in Appendix
A).
We can tell
you that there are reports of at least two people shot and injured. Reports unconfirmed that a
Confirming the confusion of
the moment, news reader Schintz added: "Eye-witness Michel Boyer saw one of the shooters. He was speaking on CBC Newsworld." He also said that "a man dressed in military fatigues stormed into the cafeteria
of the college today and opened fire," the dress issue being yet another element
of confusion (as will become clear from comments made by one of the student
eye-witnesses who is quoted below).
Following that interview, the
morning show host Bill Good returned to air and sent the coverage back to
CINW-AM, the Corus sister station in
Uh, again,
unconfirmed reports that one of the assailants took his own life. Uh, another
assailant, unconfirmed, has been shot and killed by police. Perhaps, as Lisa reported, we also have an innocent
individual, um, that has been shot and killed outside the school, a student.
We're working on clarifying all of this.
The host then interviewed Chloë, one of the students who had fled the school,
and she referred to "a man all bl-, all
dressed in black, with a black cape, with black boots, all in black with
a huge rifle ." Later in her interview,
she said, "I think there was two guys [sic]." Host Michael Dean pushed her on the issue, saying,
"Chloë, you, Chloë, you saw one suspect, one individual? You didn't see any other people? Because police are telling us that there may
be as many as four suspects involved
in this." After concluding the interviews
with Chloë and another student, Evan, Michael Dean spoke to Steve, who described
himself as having received "training as an emergency medical technician."
Among other comments, Steve said:
Outside the
perimeter is chaos. People are yelling,
crying, parents looking for their children, children looking for their parents,
crying on the phone. Uh, very reminiscent
of, of nine-eleven. You know, kind
of sends chills down my spine, only two days after the anniversary [of the
Following that dialogue, host Michael Dean spoke to callers on their cell
phones, who revealed where students were holed up in various parts of the
Dean: All right, we've got Sannah who
is on the, on the line inside the building. Sannah, what can you tell us?
Sannah: Yeah, hi. I'm inside the building. And, uh, I'm inside the lab. I'm on the seventh floor.
Dean: Okay.
Sannah: And there's, there's police everywhere
and we're still stuck.
Dean: You, there are police in the building?
You're in the building and there are police in the building?
Sannah: Yes.
The police is in the building. And,
apparently, the g-, the killer is on the second floor, floor, the cafeteria.
Dean: Okay. So -
Sannah: And we're in the lab, which is on seventh
floor [sic]. And we're still waiting for the police to come
and get us.
Dean: You gotta, you gotta, you gotta
sit tight. They still have a situation
they're dealing with. Perhaps several suspects that are involved.
We've got varying reports as to what's taking place.
The best bet for you is just to sit tight, be patient and let the police
do their job and get you out of there safe.
Sannah: Yeah, we've locked the doors and we've
sealed it with, uh, with cables. But
we're still really, really scared, you know?
Dean: Understandably so.
Sannah: Because every-, everyone is evacuated
except for us. And we're stuck on the
seventh floor.
Dean: How many students or teachers are
with you?
Sannah: We're thirty to forty students here
and there's, there's just one teacher with us.
Dean: Okay, and, and, and, so, how are
all of you dealing with this? Understandably a very scary situation.
Sannah: Yes.
Like, we don't know what's happening.
Uh, there's no one here to tell us what to do. And we're just waiting here. We've locked the doors. And we're just waiting for the police to come
and, uh, take us outside.
Dean: Well, as I said, Sannah, the best
bet for you is to just stay low, stay seated, stay calm, as calm as you possibly
can. And wait for police to do their
jobs and, and do their job and clear out the suspects and, and bring this
horrible situation to an end.
Sannah: Yeah. Ther're three, ther're two other classes here
who are stuck as well.
Dean: Okay.
Sannah: Yeah.
Dean: Well, S-, Sannah, you can tell
everyone that we're pulling for them to get through.
Our hearts and our prayers are there with you.
And, uh, we will, uh, do the best that we can to, uh, keep everyone
updated on this.
Sannah: Yes, please.
Dean: Thank you.
Sannah: Thank you. Bye.
Dean: We've got Dahlia on the line as
well. Lots of students on the third
floor as well. You just heard Sannah
report that, uh, that police are, are saying that the gunmen, or one gunman
is in the atrium cafeteria. Dahlia,
what can you tell us?
Dahlia: Um, I don't know, not really much.
I just got off the phone with my brother and he's, uh, on the third
floor. Uh, he's in there with a couple other students
and I think two, uh, teachers.
Dean: Okay.
Dahlia: And, uh, they're very, they're barri-,
they've barricaded the doors.
Dean: Okay, with desks and tables?
Dahlia: And, uh, I'm not sure exactly what
they've put in front of the door. I think there might be locks on it because he's,
he's in a program where they have, like, a conference room adjoin-, adj-,
adjacent to the classroom.
Dean: Okay.
Dahlia: So they pretty much just locked the
doors.
Dean: All right, so, uh, how is he holding
up?
Dahlia: He seems to be a little bit shaken
up, but, uh, I don't know. There seemed to be a lot of chatter in the background,
so I think they're just, just all worried, on the whole.
Dean: Well, absolutely.
Dahlia: Yeah.
Dean: Understandably. And did you have it, did he call you or did
you call him?
Dahlia: He called me.
Dean: Okay. Because, as, we're being told that the cell
phone network is, uh, c-, extremely congesjed, uh, congested rather.
Dahlia: Yeah. 'Cause he called me when it first happened and
then I, I kept trying to call him back and I kept getting his answering machine.
So he ended up calling me back again.
Dean: All right, Dahlia.
Well, our prayers are with you.
Dahlia: Thank you very much.
Dean: You're welcome.
Dahlia: Have a good day.
Dean: So,
as you hear it there, there's, there are still students that are barricaded
within the school. Some on the seventh floor, some on the third
floor. And at least one suspect, perha-,
perhaps more are holding, uh, some students, perhaps, in the atrium cafeteria
or they may be holed up there by themselves.
Um, that is a detail we are working on.
After other interviews,
Again, working
on flushing out and confirming these details at this point. We are being told that, uh, one of the gunmen
involved in this, uh, in this incident, this shooting incident down at Dawson
College has taken his own life. There's
also a report that a police officer has ended the life of one of those individuals.
As many as four suspects involved.
Reports that we're getting that, uh, two individuals involved were
carrying semi-automatic or what resembled semi-automatic weapons.
Gunshots first rang out at about twelve forty-five this afternoon. We still
have students that are barricaded within classrooms on various floors, the
third and the seventh floor. Those
are first-hand, uh, witness accounts that are coming in. Uh, students concerned, afraid, panicked perhaps,
uh, waiting for police to wrap up this police situation and take the remaining
suspects into custody so that they can, they can leave the school.
After speaking to another reporter, Sabrina Marandola, in
That is the latest from the scene. Uh, that, uh, we were also getting reports that
there are other students, there were other students, uh, on the third floor
and on the seventh floor. Sabrina just
saying that the most recent evacuees from that, uh, from the school were on
the sixth floor and that, uh, authorities were not even aware that they were
there holed up.
Michael Dean then reconnected with reporter Lisa Fiset. Their dialogue was in part as follows:
Dean: Uh, Lisa, we heard reports about,
uh, I'd say roughly fifteen to twenty minutes ago at most, that police were
surprised to learn that there were still students holed up in a classroom,
along with presumably a teacher or two on the sixth floor.
Are you hearing anything further? We're
getting witness reports that there may be students still holed up on the seventh
floor and on the third floor. And,
if I'm not mistaken, the atrium cafeteria is on the second floor.
Fiset: Um,
I've heard that there are still students inside the building as well.
I'm hearing this from other kids who've been in contact, uh, with friends
who are in, uh, still in the building. Uh,
one girl said her friend was, uh, in the bathroom and had no intention of
leaving until she was given the all clear. A few other students, uh, apparently barricaded
in classrooms. Again, this is what
I'm hearing from students who are on the scene.
Following the exchange with Lisa Fiset, the anchor again referred to the
students confined in the College:
As you can see, it continues to be a very fluid situation.
[.] We're getting reports that there are still possibly
students that are trapped in classrooms, barricaded within classrooms, fearing
for their lives. Uh, this on the seventh
floor. And we also spoke with someone
on the third floor.
The Complaint
On the day of the
During the
shooting incident at the
This, in a
situation like this or in a terrorist situation, could have tipped the gunman
to the whereabouts of the trapped people.
This has to be stopped and regulations put in place in this type of
situation as lives were put in jeopardy.
Since it was unclear from the initial complaint which radio station the
complainant was listening to, the CBSC asked for clarification. On September 18, the complainant sent four explanatory
e-mails, which not only identified CKNW as the station on which he had heard
the live news report, but also added a further gloss on his concerns about
the substance of the live broadcast.
I appreciate
the protocol on how this might be handled; however, on issues
like this,
lives were potentially put into jeopardy.
Gunmen, like
at Dawson College, and terrorists are very much publicity-driven and this
radio host, by disclosing over the airwaves where the location of 24 students
barracked [sic] on the 7th floor
by a caller who was trapped with the others, was irresponsible. The gunman could have been listening as is [sic] if the worst happened the station
would have been sued for criminal wrong-doing with little help to those who
might have died.
I feel it is
up to all those concerned to address these serious issues, as within a democracy
freedom of speech is one thing, but even in a democratic country, having a
freedom and potentially causing death by negligence are two different matters.
I beg you to take a pro-active stance in this issue,
as this could develop to a tragedy [sic]
in the future.
[.]
The gunman
at this time had not yet been reported as being shot and killed, and there
was still suspect [sic] that there
were possibly a few gunmen, their motive unknown.
[.]
The caller
stated there were 30-40 students in the "lab" on the 7th floor,
several suspected gunners still at large.
Very upsetting
how this was handled.
The Broadcaster's
Reply
On October 27, the Program Director at CKNW responded to the complainant,
in principal part as follows:
When this tragic
event occurred, CKNW Vancouver began airing a live feed from our sister station
940 CINW
Specifically,
your concern is that by broadcasting this call, the lives of the students
in the lab were put in danger as the gunman could have been listening and
been alerted to their location.
We have reviewed
the broadcast and we respectfully disagree that the students were put in further
danger through the airing of this call and would make the assertion that the
students' ability to communicate their whereabouts from within the school
would have helped expedite their rescue.
Covering live
news events and emergencies for our communities is a role that we consider
vital and take very seriously at Corus Radio.
We consider it a privilege that our communities depend on us for important
information in times of emergency. Please
rest assured that this is a responsibility that we do not take lightly.
Our managers, producers and hosts spend many hours on training and
preparation for live news events to ensure that when news happens we broadcast
to our community instantly, effectively and responsibly.
The Ruling Request and Additional Correspondence
The complainant was not satisfied
with the response and filed a Ruling Request with accompanying letter on November
2. In the letter, he added the following
arguments:
From the recent
events that happened at Dawson College, one could argue that radio listeners
might have been better informed in this type of crisis situation from more
factual reporting than fielding live calls from people crying and family members
wanting to know the whereabouts of their children who were there and possibly
in danger however dramatic the broadcasting was to the radio audience.
It could also
be said that it is no leap of the imagination to suspect that gunmen and terrorists
might actually thrive on this publicity to promote their cause by attracting
attention to their plight, as terrorist acts are often designed as theatre
- as spectacular events with a dramatic content that spellbinds an audience,
precisely the kind of story that attracts the media.
All that said,
my main concern and objection to Corus Network's response is that they actually
see no wrong-doing by broadcasting live the whereabouts of the trapped students
and actually perversely state that it might have expedited their escape.
It must be remembered that at the time of the call from one of the
trapped 40 students in the lab room that it was not known if this was a terrorist
attack or an attack by several gunmen such as at
I am troubled
that Corus Radio admits no responsibility in their broadcasting of the whereabouts
of the barricaded students hiding from danger, but if the events unfolded
differently in loss of lives would their response be the same? [.]
I therefore
ask that this type of broadcasting be regulated in events such as gunmen and
terrorist attacks, as these are serious and have dangerous outcomes for all
individuals involved. I feel it is
not enough for the Corus group or other media networks to apologize publicly,
as these are very disturbing and serious matters in our current times.
I urgently
recommend to the governing body that this response by the Corus Group be reviewed
and acted upon by implementing policy with clear guidelines with substantial
fines levied when violated. It is only
this type of regulation that will keep broadcasters from acting irresponsible
[sic] in similar tragic situations
that might happen in the future. [.]
THE DECISION
The British Columbia Regional Panel examined the complaint
under the following provision of the RTNDA Code of (Journalistic) Ethics.
RTNDA Code of
(Journalistic) Ethics, Article 10 (Covering Violent Situations)
Reporting
on criminal activities such as hostage-takings, prison uprisings or terrorist
acts will be done in a fashion that does not knowingly endanger lives, offer
comfort and support or provide vital information to the perpetrator(s). RTNDA members will contact neither victims nor
perpetrators of a criminal activity during the course of the event for the
purpose of conducting an interview that would interfere with a peaceful resolution.
The British Columbia Regional Panel Adjudicators read
all of the correspondence and listened to the challenged segment. The Panel concludes that the broadcast violated
the aforementioned Code provision.
Breaking News Coverage
Technology has facilitated the
coverage of news events in the 21st century, both as to speed and
scope. It is perhaps an irony of that
benefit that the coverage frequently overtakes the ability to draw accurate
conclusions about events at a corresponding pace. Thus, in the
Thus, although the Panel noted
the chaos, confusion and inaccuracy of information at the start of this decision,
it did so not to criticize the broadcaster,
but in order to re-establish for readers the context for the issue that is
of concern to it.
The Applicable Article
The Panel has two technical difficulties with the wording of
Article 10 of the RTNDA
Code of (Journalistic) Ethics. The first relates
to the title of the article, "Covering Violent Activities", which does not
seem to gibe with the wording of the article. The substance of its text is clearly limited to "reporting on
criminal activities". Violent activities could include a broad range
of natural calamities, such as the tsunami of December 2004 or accidental
occurrences, such as airline or railroad crashes; those are not, however,
the anticipated target of the article. The
wording makes it clear that the article is meant to apply to the coverage
of criminal activities, and
that is what the B.C. Regional Panel is facing in the challenged broadcast. In any event, it is fair to say that the Panel
would not see the errant title as having any bearing on its interpretation of the article
itself; however, the Panel does find it useful, if not interpretively critical,
to make this observation.
The second concern is of greater moment, since it could have
a bearing on the meaning of the article. This
relates to the use of the term "peaceful resolution" at the end of the second
paragraph. The Panel considers that
the codifiers of the amended Code in 2000 intended that the concern of the
RTNDA was with journalists taking any measures that could interfere with the
successful, but not necessarily peaceful, resolution of a criminal activity
or enterprise. A peaceful resolution
suggests a negotiated or agreed conclusion, which would seem to be the antithesis
of, for example, an assault by law enforcement authorities.
The Panel concludes that the RTNDA codifiers were at least as concerned
by the prospect of a journalistic step or intrusion that could interfere with
a police effort to end a hostage-taking or other criminal activity as they
were with an interference with a negotiated conclusion.
It is on the basis of this interpretation of that codified standard
that the present decision is rendered.
The
Revelation of Dangerous Detail
In the 21st century,
technology has shrunk the global village. Technology has so expanded communication possibilities
and compressed distances that the tasks of perpetrators of violent acts have
been greatly facilitated. For example,
their criminal acts can be planned from far away. They can even be executed remotely. Criminals can also co-ordinate their actions
when separated by thousands of kilometres, continents or oceans, both at the
planning and execution stages. With
small, if not tiny, digital cameras, as well as cell phones with still and
video camera functions, they can monitor events as they occur. In short, criminals have extended the importance
of Article 10 in the unfolding dramas of all sorts of modern nefarious activities.
In the result, technology has created new risks for the public in the
reporting of criminal activities such as hostage-takings, prison uprisings
or terrorist acts. Broadcasters must be scrupulously thoughtful
about the information they air, in order to ensure that they do not either
knowingly or carelessly endanger the lives of innocents or provide vital information
to the perpetrator(s).
In the context of the Dawson
College shooting, as noted above, it was a good eight hours after the
first shots before even the police knew that they had been dealing with a
single assailant (who, as things turned
out, had died fairly early in the shooting spree). In fact, during much of the period of terror,
neither the police nor the media knew how many perpetrators were present in
the College, much less whether they had any colleagues on the outside co-ordinating
activities or whether the on-the-spot perpetrators were themselves tracking
electronically accessible information.
On this issue, the BC Panel
finds it instructive to look at Guidelines created by the American equivalent
of the RTNDA, namely, the Radio-Television News Directors Association (RTNDA
International). While their Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct
differs in presentation and enforcement from the Canadian RTNDA's Code, the
principles established in both are similar.
RTNDA International does, however, have a set of Ethics Guidelines, which are meant to be supplementary to their
Code and illustratively pertinent. The
BC Panel finds them useful and pertinent references.
By way of example, RTNDA International
states in its Ethics Guidelines (in the section on "Covering Hostage-Taking
Crises, Police Raids, Prison Uprisings, Terrorist Actions"), "Always assume
that the hostage taker, gunman or terrorist has access to the reporting."
Those Guidelines also counsel broadcast journalists to "[a]void describing
with words or showing with still photography and video any information that
could divulge the tactics or positions of SWAT team members."
The BC Regional Panel considers it at least as serious to avoid describing
any information that could divulge the positions of potential victims, who
are, needless to say, far less able to protect themselves against gunmen than
SWAT teams would be. If the danger
to law enforcement tactics and positions is problematic, so too is the danger
to the security and lives of members of the public.
The Panel notes that the broadcaster
not only aired live telephone calls with trapped students but that
it also repeated, no less than four times, the locations of those students
in the building. The Panel is not suggesting
that the station ought not to have either taken or broadcast those cell phone
calls from the frightened trapped students. Indeed, it is fortunate that the students were
able to access the broadcasters as a potential lifeline. The broadcaster ought never, however,
to have permitted that part of those calls (the students' locations) to go
to air. They should have funnelled
such information to the police but they ought never to have revealed to the
world at large the third and seventh floor locations, the number of students
there, and their method of barricading or protecting themselves. Nor should they have revealed those details
on air in summaries by the anchor or the reporters thereafter. The consequences might, as the complainant validly
assumed, have been lethal. Broadcasters
must always assume that the perpetrators have access to the information they
report.
In slightly different, but analogous,
circumstances, dealt with in Global Television
re Global National (Kidnapping Report) (CBSC Decision 03/04-0324,
December 15, 2004), Wilf Dinnick reported on the case of Amanda Stamp, who
had gone missing from her home in
In the matter
at hand, the report that Amanda Stamp had been in a quite specific location
and had advised a cashier at a store who she was and that the cashier should
call 911 was, it seems clear to the Panel, an endangering bit of news. Had the abductor been watching television at
the moment of the newscast and learned of what Stamp had said, he may well
have taken retributive action. That
would have been a tragic outcome, which is clearly what the Code article sought
to avoid. It goes without saying it would be no defence
to say that "other media outlets had already reported it." It is surely the obligation of each news medium
to determine what does, or does not, reflect their industry's standards. It is clear that each broadcaster would have
to arrive at such a determination for itself.
In the present instance, Global Television has breached the codified
standard established in Article 10 of the RTNDA Code of (Journalistic)
Ethics.
In the
It also observes that it would
have been pertinent to apply its conclusions to CINW-AM, the Corus sister
station in Montreal, as well as to any other Corus stations running the challenged
portion of the live feed. The CBSC's
procedures do not, however, permit such a conclusion. In the circumstances, no complaint having been
received from a
Broadcaster
Responsiveness
The CBSC always assesses the
broadcaster's responsiveness to the complainant, which is a responsibility
of membership in the Council. It expects
that response to be thoughtful and focussed on the substance of the complaint. In the matter at hand, while the Panel disagrees
with the conclusions reached by the Program Director, it considers that his
response constitutes a sufficient reply to fulfill CKNW's obligation of responsiveness
on this occasion.
ANNOUNCEMENT
OF THE DECISION
CKNW-AM
is required to: 1) announce the decision,
in the following terms, once during peak listening hours within three days
following the release of this decision and once more within seven days following
the release of this decision during the time period in which the breaking
news story was broadcast; 2) within the fourteen days following the broadcasts
of the announcements, to provide written confirmation of the airing of the
statement to the complainant who filed the Ruling Request; and 3) at that
time, to provide the CBSC with a copy of that written confirmation and with
air check copies of the broadcasts of the two announcements which must be
made by CKNW-AM.
The
Canadian Broadcast Standards Council has found that CKNW-AM breached Article
10 of the Radio-Television News Directors Association of Canada Code of
(Journalistic) Ethics in its broadcast of a live news feed from Montreal
on September 13, 2006. During the Dawson College shooting on that day, CKNW
broadcast live cell phone interviews with individuals who revealed where students
had barricaded themselves in the College and repeated that information while
the rampage was continuing. Consequently, the CBSC has concluded that the
broadcaster breached the Code article that requires that news reporting ought
not to endanger lives, provide vital information to the perpetrators or potentially
interfere with the successful resolution of the matter being reported.
This decision is a public document
upon its release by the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council.