Journalistic Standards and Practices
III. PRINCIPLES
4. DIVERSITY
The CBC would fail to live up to its mandate if, in the attempt to upset no one, to disturb no institution, it undertook to limit the comprehensiveness of its reporting of contemporary society. Equally, it is important to examine and keep before the public those positive aspects of our society as well as those which are being called into question, and those trends or events which are important but that may not be spectacular.
The CBC's mandate calls upon the Corporation to reflect Canada and its regions to national and regional audiences, while serving the special needs of those regions. An appropriate balance must be maintained in information programming between the national, regional and local needs and undue weight should not be given to points of view of one region of the country. Programming cannot be limited to what the largest audience wants to know; it must include what the public is entitled and needs to know. This implies no disregard for expressed taste but a recognition of the requirement for a source of comprehensive information.
A journalistic organization, to achieve balance and fairness, should ensure that the widest possible range of views is expressed. Almost any opinion may contain a grain of truth that helps to illuminate the whole truth. But proper account must also be taken of the weight of opinion which holds these views and its significance or potential significance. The challenging of accepted orthodoxies should be reported but so also should the established views be clearly put. Moreover, the range of views and the weight of opinion are changing and these dynamics of change must be reflected. Nor are range and breadth of presentation sufficient in journalistic programming: there must also be depth, the capturing of dimensions and nuances. Without these elements, the programming becomes too simplistic to permit adequate comprehension of issues put before the public.
If the media are to do their work of reflecting and revealing reality properly, there will at times be tensions between the media and different elements of society. This should not inhibit the CBC, so long as the Corporation in its information programming is carrying out this essential task of informing the public in accordance with its established journalistic standards.
