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Will Zuzak; CRTC.002 = 1992-11-13 reply from Romanica/CBC; 1993-10-14
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Dear Subscribers:
     My complaint to the CRTC resulted in the following reply from Rachel 
Romanica of the CBC:
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November 13, 1992

Dear Mr. Zuzak,

Your August 20 letter to the Secretary-General of the CRTC,
regarding coverage of the John Demjanjuk trial, has come to us
for reply.

We regret your feeling that the Canadian news media has provided
biased coverage of this trial. In your letter you write that
"Substantial evidence pointing to John Demjanjuk's innocence was
virtually ignored at that time and since then." I would like to
assure you that this charge cannot be made against the national
news service of the CBC. Here are some summaries of items that
appeared on The National and other CBC news programs:

1.   Recent evidence indicates that John Demjanjuk may be a
     victim of mistaken identity.

2.   The lawyer of John Demjanjuk gave the court a photo of a man
     he says is the real Ivan the Terrible.

3.   Guards at the Treblinka death camp told Soviet officials
     that Demjanjuk was not in charge of the camp.

4.   His lawyers say they have turned up new evidence that proves
     Demjanjuk was not only the victim of mistaken identity, but
     was in fact framed by the KGB.

These are but four of many examples of items that reflect the
CBC's fair, accurate and balanced coverage of the Demjanjuk case.

You also suggest that CBC failed to provide balanced coverage on
August 12, 1992 in an item on The National pertaining to claims
that the federal government was not being zealous enough in
pursuing alleged Nazi war criminals. The item in question gave
voice to the two sides at issue: Sol Littman of the Wiesenthal
Centre (making the allegation) and Justice Minister Kim Campbell
(responding to the allegation) to ensure balance. You say we
should have interviewed the lawyers of Messrs. Finta, Pawloski
and Reistetter, who were mentioned in our item. There was no need
to interview these people since we reported that their
prosecutions resulted either in acquittal, withdrawal or staying
of charges.

Should you be dissatisfied with this response, or any other you
may have obtained from your local station or from a programming
officer, you may submit the matter for review to the Ombudsman -
Office of Journalistic Policy and Practices, which is an
independent unit, reporting directly to the President of the CBC.
If you wish follow this course of action, please write to the
Ombudsman, informing him of the remaining points of disagreement,
if any, and giving him the facts or any new arguments which you
may wish to make to support your position. His address is as
follows:

               CBC Ombudsman
               P.O. Box 500, Station "A"
               Toronto, Ontario
               M5W 1E6

We appreciate having your concerns brought to our attention, and
I hope this information will serve to correct any impression you
may have had that CBC coverage of this trial has been biased or
incomplete.

Yours sincerely,

Rachel Romanica
Corporate Communications
CBC Head Office
P.O. Box 8478
Ottawa, Ontario
K1G 3J5
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Will Zuzak; CRTC.002 = 1992-11-13 reply from Romanica/CBC; 1993-10-14
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