Qualified Canadian Journalism Organization

Overview of original news content

2.23. Original news content should be primarily focused on matters of general interest and reports of current events, including coverage of democratic institutions and processes. For clarity:

1. General interest means news content that is aimed at a general audience, as opposed to specialists of a specific field. Content should be diverse and may include a variety of content such as local news, national news, international news, social issues (such as health, education, faith and ethics), business and economy, sports, culture, science and technology, and the environment.
2. Democratic institutions include legislative bodies, municipal councils, courts of justice, and school boards.
3. Democratic processes include elections and proceedings in legislative assemblies, such as the House of Commons.

Journalistic principles

2.25. The term original news content includes the content for which research, writing, editing and formatting are conducted by and for the organization. Original news content includes news, features, investigations, profiles, interviews, and analyses or commentaries, based on journalistic processes and principles, intended for a general audience.

2.26. Journalistic processes and principles include:

1. a commitment to researching and verifying information before publication;
2. a consistent practice of providing rebuttal opportunity for those being criticized and presenting alternate perspectives, interpretations and analyses;
3. an honest representation of sources; and
4. a practice of correcting errors.

but do not include:

5. solicitation, design or production of advertising;
6. advertorials, sponsored content, branded content (any content where a third party, advertising client or business partner, participates in the development of the concept or directs or gives final approval to a large portion of the content);
7. stories produced primarily for industrial, corporate or institutional purposes; or
8. editing content that is entirely or principally accumulated or produced by algorithms or by aggregation software.

Exclusions

2.27. The reproduction of material produced by another organization would not be considered original news content of the organization and will factor into the determination of whether an organization is primarily engaged in the production of original news content.

2.28. Activities or publications that focus primarily on the following would not be considered the production of original news content:

1. industry-specific publications, trade journals, travel magazines, sports or entertainment news;
2. the rewriting, translation, reproduction or aggregation of news from external sources (including articles from news agencies, a current or previous issue of the same publication or any other publication);
3. advertisements, listings, catalogues, directories, guides, financial reports, schedules, calendars, timetables, comic books, cartoons, puzzles, games and horoscopes;
4. internal publications of companies, private or public bodies, or associations; and
5. publication of content that is illegal in Canada.

Meaning of “regularly employs”/freelance exclusion

2.31. For clarity, “regularly employs” refers to the employment of journalists that is regular and continuous, either full-time or part-time, even if the position is temporarily unoccupied. For example, if an organization regularly employs two arm’s length journalists but one leaves, resulting in a temporary period where there is only one such journalist before a replacement is hired, that would not, in and of itself, disqualify the organization.

2.32. Freelance journalists are generally not considered to be employees of an organization, but would be self-employed contractors.