Quebec's Journalism Licensing Plans to Go Through Public First

Consultations are set to determine if Quebec needs to distinguish the difference between 'professional journalists' and 'guys with phones and keyboards.' We didn't know there was one.

The Quebec government's proposal to start certifying “professional” journalists will go through public consultations across the province in the coming months. The Quebec Ministry of Culture, Communications, and the Status of Women says it will host ten meetings in different cities to hear what the public thinks about the state of the province's media, and whether they think introducing a licensing system will help protect the status of journalists. The government says doing so would help the public differentiate between bloggers and online commentators and actual journalists, even if the line demarcating “journalism” is as fuzzy as you can get and there are probably dozens of bloggers with more professionalism than journalists on television or in newspapers. Also, seriously, certifying the press? What is this, Romania?