OTTAWA - The news media got a little less free in Canada this year, says a watchdog group in its annual ranking of press freedom worldwide.
Canada fell to 19th place this year from 13th last year on Reporters Without Borders' index of freedom of the press. The analysis covers print, broadcast and online journalism in 175 countries.
The Paris-based group, also known by its French acronym RSF, says court challenges to journalists' rights to protect their sources precipitated Canada's drop six spots from last year's ranking.
Lawsuits intended to silence critics under the weight of the hefty cost of a legal defence - known as strategic lawsuits against public participation, or SLAPP suits - also factored into the drop, said Dennis Trudeau, a spokesman for Reporters Without Borders' Canadian chapter.
"There are issues like real protection of sources," he said.
"Where a reporter could theoretically face jail or a fine for not revealing his sources is in our view, especially when we're dealing with public issues, a unreasonable restriction on freedom of the press."
Earlier this year, Canada's top court agreed to take on a press freedom case involving the sponsorship scandal.
The Supreme Court of Canada agreed to hear the Globe and Mail's challenge of a gag order that barred it from reporting settlement talks between Ottawa and a Quebec advertising firm.
The top court has already agreed to hear a separate challenge of the Quebec Superior Court's attempt to force Globe and Mail reporter Daniel Leblanc - who broke many of the scandal's first stories - to reveal his sources.
Chris Waddell, a journalism professor at Carleton University, says another issue of news media freedom that comes to mind is the Canadian Human Rights Commission, which has come under fire recently over a couple of high-profile cases.
One of those cases involved a Mark Steyn book excerpt on the Maclean's magazine website. The excerpt was accused of promoting hatred and contempt of Muslims.
That case was tossed out, but led some to demand that the commission be disbanded.
Moreover, many Canadian journalists complain the country's freedom-of-information legislation lacks teeth.
The Access to Information Act allows people who pay $5 to request files held by the federal government.
The law requires a response within 30 days, though departments can take extensions under certain conditions. But delays of 120 days or longer are common, and even then the government frequently misses its own deadlines.
The Harper government recently nixed recommendations to expand and modernize Canada's access-to-information and privacy laws.
A House of Commons committee had recommended, among other things, that the information commissioner be given more power to force the government to disclose information in a timely manner.
But Justice Minister Rob Nicholson quietly rejected the proposed reforms as too cumbersome, unnecessary or ill-considered.
Mary Agnes Welch, president of the Canadian Association of Journalists, says reporters all over the country are having trouble prying even the most basic information from the federal government.
She says it takes departments days to answer routine questions, and even then replies often come in the form of email talking points.
"The amount of information flowing out of Ottawa has come to a trickle," Welch said.
A spokesman for the Prime Minister's Office did not directly answer questions about Canada's drop on the Reporters Without Borders' list.
"Canada's is a great democracy where freedom of the press is a fundamental part of our society," Dimitri Soudas said in an email.
The top three spots on Reporters Without Borders' list went to Denmark, Finland and Ireland, while Eritrea, North Korea and Turkmenistan rounded out the bottom three.
The United States rose to No. 20 this year from No. 40 in last year's ranking, which the group attributes to more relaxed attitudes toward the media under U.S. President Barack Obama.
The group compiles the list based on questionnaires completed by journalists and media experts around the world, as well as data on attacks, arrests, laws and overt or covert censorship.
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