The survey, sponsored by one of the country's largest media unions, was taken just days following the controversial firing of a leading newspaper publisher after he called for the resignation of Prime Minister Jean Chretien, a friend of the family that controls media conglomerate CanWest Global Communications Corp. .

The poll by Strategic Communications Inc. also found almost half of those surveyed believe media owners exercise too much control over the political opinions expressed by individual journalists in the newspapers they write for.

"Canadians are deeply concerned about the concentration of media ownership in this country and the effects it is having on their news flow. They want something done about it, and they want the federal government to do something about it," said Peter Murdoch, a vice-president with the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada.

Media ownership and editorial interference have become hot-button issues in Canada following last month's firing of Ottawa Citizen Publisher Russell Mills by CanWest.

CanWest is the country's largest newspaper publisher and owner of one its three major broadcast networks.

Mills said he was fired because the Citizen published an editorial critical of Chretien, a friend of Winnipeg's Asper family, which controls CanWest and supports Chretien's Liberal Party.

The firing caused an uproar and was roundly condemned by journalists, unions and opposition legislators.

CALLS FOR BREAKUP

The Strategic poll found 74 percent of respondents agreed with a statement that there is too much concentration of media ownership, with players such as CanWest and Bell Globemedia, majority owned by BCE Inc., controlling too large a portion of newspapers, radio and television stations.

Around 72 percent of respondents agreed with a statement that media concentration has limited the quality of information and variety of opinion in daily newspapers.

The firing of Mills was also addressed in the poll, which found 51 percent of those surveyed believed it was done because the Aspers are friends and supporters of Chretien.

The poll said 66 percent of respondents agreed with a statement that ownership concentration is a problem and the federal government should take steps to deal with it.

Murdoch and other union officials said they would like to see the government intervene to force media conglomerates to divest some of their holdings. They noted some media conglomerates are heavily indebted, and said the industry is in flux and asset sales are likely.

Results of the polls were released at news conferences across the country, including Vancouver, where a labor dispute has shut down the city's two CanWest-owned daily newspapers, the Sun and Province.

A union official said that while the poll's issues were not directly on the bargaining table in Vancouver, the dispute highlights CanWest's position in the city, where it also owns a television station and most of the region's weekly newspapers.

The poll surveyed 1,000 people between June 27 and July 4. The margin of error was 3.1 percent, 19 times out of 20.

(With additional reporting by Allan Dowd in Vancouver)

Copyright 2002 Reuters Ltd

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