John Honderich says the federal Conservatives have gone to unprecedented lengths to control the news agenda.

The federal Conservatives have gone to unprecedented lengths to control the news agenda, says Torstar Corporation Chair John Honderich. “What the Harper government has done to restrain the flow of information and hold press conferences is simply outrageous,” he told a group of Ryerson University MBA students on Wednesday. The class had invited Honderich to address their second annual lecture series held at Ryerson’s Ted Rogers School of Management. One student asked why media outlets, including Torstar-owned Toronto Star, had not fought harder against media protocol introduced in 2008 which muzzled government scientists. “A lot of stories were done and this issue was given great prominence, but guess what? The public doesn’t care,” countered Honderich. He pointed to a recent attempt by Prime Minister Stephen Harper to ban a CTV cameraman who lobbed a question at him during a photo op. “We’ve got to a situation where a Prime Minister’s office thinks they can ban a photographer because he asked, by the way, a very legitimate question…. “…They have been able to manage and control the flow of news and what’s going on more than any federal government ever has.”