Ottawa Raging Grannies, rousted by police, continue to protest unfair treatment of freelancer media workers as they stand on the parapet outside the National Arts Centre.
By Shannon Lee Mannion
Freelance writers and photographers are in danger of losing their bylines if they refuse to sign unjust contracts proposed by media conglomerations across Canada.
This includes agreements forthcoming from CanWest MediaWorks, Quebecor and Torstar, among others.
These contracts confiscate a contractees economic rights by demanding all rights in perpetuity without provision for compensation. In addition, most contracts demand that a creator waive moral rights that allow the buyer carte blanche to distort or modify meaning even to the detriment of the creator’s reputation.
Moral rights are attached for the same amount of time as copyright, 50 years after the death of the creator. The potential for personal damage through third-party sales where there is no control over meaning and use by the originator is enormous.
Writers’ organizations and groups from across Canada have written letters of outrage protesting the malfeasance of the purveyors yet media monopolies prevail in their bid to bring their contract employees to their knees. It’s not a carrot they dangle as encouragement, but a cudgel over the head of hapless scribes, "Sign or you don’t work," is the upshot. Conscientious writers who don’t sign effectively doom themselves to a national blacklist.
Enter the Raging Grannies, a group of older women with a heightened sense of social justice. When they realized that essential freedoms are imperiled through the bully tactics of conglomerates, they decided to take on the issue.
Thus the Ottawa Raging Grannies aka The Parliament Hill Mob occupied the main foyer of the National Arts Centre (NAC) at noon hour on Friday, May 2/08.
The NAC was chosen for this action because the media elite was gathering to celebrate the tenth annual World Press Freedom Day.
The Raging Grannies, known for their outlandish hats and satiric songs, did not sing that day out of respect for Spencer Moore, founder of the World Press Freedom Day, who had passed away the day before. He was 84-years old.
Instead, the women chose to dedicate the demonstration to Mr. Moore with a silent vigil honouring his commitment to freedom of the press.
The dark-green banner they held steady for half an hour while luncheon guests arrived and before the police came to toss them out, read:
We mourn the loss of Spencer Moore who Stood for Freedom of the Press.
Media Monopolies force Freelancers to sign bad Contracts that Encroach on Moral Rights. This is wrong.
There were signs, also, placed on the floor in front of the banner, reading: Broken Lances, Writers Wronged, CanWest Cancels Copyrights and It's Not Really "Free"-Lance.
The Ottawa Raging Grannies are leading the vanguard of Raging Grannies groups across Canada who are expected to take up the cause and prevail until balance and fair play is in place for freelance media workers.
______