LIBERALS TO LIST APPROVED MEDIA

  Federal agencies will publish an A-list of newspapers and websites deemed reliable under a multi-million dollar subsidy program, the Department of Finance yesterday told the Senate national finance committee. Subsidies to federally-approved news media invite government meddling in a free press, cautioned one senator.
  An unnamed cabinet-appointed group will decide which media qualify for subsidies. “The government will decide whether or not to change certain criteria,” said Maude Lavoie, Finance Canada director general of business tax programs.
   Senator Raynell Andreychuk (Conservative-Sask.), chair of the foreign relations committee, yesterday described the subsidy program as troubling. “I’m very concerned that Canada has been one of the countries that that has staunchly talked about freedom of the press,” said Andreychuk. “We know how many journalists have lost their lives. So, we monitor and fight back and say democracy is the free press, an independent judiciary. And here we’re going to be setting up criteria by the government to get government funds.”