Project News

Local Journalism Initiative is Renewed for 2024-25

Funding for the Local Journalism Initiative, funded by the Department of Canadian Heritage, has been extended for a sixth year, from 2024-25.  

The Canadian Association of Community Television Users and Stations (CACTUS) will be supporting between 20 and 25 journalists creating civic journalism in underserved communities, hosted by community TV stations

Seventeen Community TV Stations and Media Centres Hire LJI Journalists

By early 2020, all 17 location had found journalists, and civic coverage started to flow!

CACTUS and the Fédération Choose 17 Underserved Communities to Host LJI Journalists

In the fall of 2019 CACTUS and the Fédération choose 17 community TV stations in underserved communities to Host LJI Journalists, from Gaspé to the interior of British Columbia (see our Partners page for the full list).

CACTUS and the Fédération Chosen to Manage LJI Funding for Community TV

In the summer of 2019, CACTUS and the Federation are chosen along with five other Administrative Organization to Manage LJI Funding for Community TV.  The measure is undertaken to introduce separation between the federal government and the news organizations who will host the journalists.

Local Journalism Initiative Announced February 2018

The Local Journalism Initiative was announced by the federal government in the 2018 budget.  Meetings with media industry groups in early 2019 sought to identify ways in which the program could be managed at arms length from government, to preserve journalistic independence of participation media organizations.