NO FREEDOM HERE

The Toronto Star - June 17, 2002
Citizen publisher says he was fired
CanWest refuses comment on departure of Russell Mills

OTTAWA (CP) - Ottawa Citizen publisher Russell Mills says he was fired from his job at the newspaper after running afoul of CanWest Global editorial policies.

Geoffrey Elliot, a spokesman for CanWest Global, confirmed Mills "left the company."

"As for the circumstances of Mr. Mills's departure, that is a private matter between him and the company and we have no comment on that."

Gordon Fisher, CanWest Global president of news and information, has been named interim replacement.

Mills, 57, who joined the Citizen as a copy editor in 1971, said he was summoned to a meeting with CanWest owner David Asper in Ottawa late Sunday "and was told that they wanted to make a change."

"I was given the option of retiring, but it would have required signing a confidentiality agreement and just putting out a short statement that I had retired. In my view I couldn't do that after so many years in journalism, to put out a statement that was inaccurate."

Mills, named editor in 1977 and publisher in 1986, delivered a convocation address Saturday to graduating students at Carleton University after receiving an honorary doctor of laws degree.

A transcript of his address was reprinted Sunday as a full-page item in the Citizen.

In the published address, Mills tackled the CanWest editorial policy, which obliges member newspapers to run an editorial from head office twice a week.

"CanWest national editorials took two Southam newspapers, including the Citizen, to task for suggesting in editorials that the prime minister should resign from office over his conduct in the Shawinigate matter," Mills told graduates at Carleton.

Mills said "the most controversial aspect of this is that the newspapers are not permitted to disagree with what are described as 'core positions.' "

CanWest has denied the policy shuns contrary opinion to the national editorials.

Mills says the trouble began with a feature that ran in the newspaper earlier this month. It was highly critical of Prime Minister Jean Chretien and was followed by an editorial calling for his resignation.

"They wanted to see it in advance and they felt I should have submitted it to them for approval," said Mills. "I had no way of knowing that was their expectation.

"They've given many guarantees about the editorial independence of the newspapers to the CRTC, to the Heritage committee of the House of Commons."

Mills said other Southam newspapers have called for Chretien's resignation since the Aspers took over Southam "without pre-clearance, without any consequences or even any communication that I know of."

CanWest owns the Global television network as well as Southam Inc., which publishes such daily newspapers as the National Post, Vancouver Sun, Ottawa Citizen, Montreal Gazette, Edmonton Journal and Halifax Daily News.