OTTAWA—Under pressure from the Conservative government, the CRTC has opened the door to U.S.-style attack broadcast journalism, NDP critics say.

MPs Charlie Angus (Timmins James Bay) and Thomas Mulcair (Outremont) suggested Monday that rules for accuracy in broadcast journalism are being weakened because the government wants to accommodate right-leaning Sun TV News or Fox North as it has become known.

“If you change it (the regulation) you could see a very different media landscape. You could have the kind of Fox News in Canada, you could see the hate radio that’s all over the United States,” Angus told a news conference.

Last month, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission — upon direction from a joint Senate-House of Commons regulatory committee — proposed a change to the rules on false or misleading news broadcasts on radio or television. The law currently says a broadcast licensee “shall not broadcast any false or misleading news.”

The change would state that no radio or television network will broadcast any news “the licensee knows is false or misleading and that endangers or is likely to endanger the lives, health or safety of the public.”

CRTC spokesman Denis Carmel emphasized it was the committee that directed the arm’s length commission to make the change. There are only two days left of public consultation.

“Their job is to look at regulations and if they find something that is objectionable from a legal standpoint they have the power to revoke . . . They have been saying that this (existing) regulation is too wide and too vague . . . and had little chance of standing up against the Charter,” he said.

Carmel noted in the more than 20 years the existing standard has been around, no reporter or broadcaster has been found guilty of violating it.

Michael Geist, Canada Research Chair of Internet and e-commerce law at the University of Ottawa, told the Star that “I think you could identify instances where real public harm is caused that would now be permitted under this change.”

Angus said it is well-known Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s office took a direct interest in the licence application from Sun TV. His director of communications, Kory Teneycke, left the Prime Minister’s Office in the summer of 2009 to take over the helm of the fledgling network.

“I found it very unusual that the Prime Minister would get a personal briefing on a CRTC application as was done in the case of this Fox News network north. I found it very unusual that the communications of the Prime Minister suddenly quits his job and reappears as an expert broadcaster,” he said.

Chris Waddell, Carleton University’s director of journalism and communications, said, “People should wait to see what Sun TV puts on the air” before passing judgment.