Breaking news: Many Canadians think their media hack phones, pay for information

The British phone-hacking scandal that exposed practices at Rupert Murdoch's tabloid News of the World and led to its closure is on the back burner these days, but a new poll suggests it's reinforced the poor reputation of news media among many Canadians.

The poll released this week by Ipsos Reid indicates a majority of Canadians want journalists to be formally accredited, and four out of 10 respondents believed reporters in this country indulge in the same dubious information-gathering techniques as their British counterparts.

The online poll, which sampled more than a thousand people earlier this month for the Canadian Journalism Foundation, found 56 per cent of respondents want Canadian journalists to be accredited "by some form of industry-wide standards body" as a prerequisite to being hired.

Some 44 per cent agreed there was no need for formal accreditation because their employers were equipped to evaluate their skills and could fire them if they did a poor job.

The poll then asked about the journalistic practices exposed in Britain. The scandal broke big last summer after revelations the practice of phone hacking was not limited to a single rogue reporter, as was previously claimed. It turned out News of the World reporters had hacked the voicemail of a murdered young girl and the families of British military personnel killed overseas, among others. The paper also paid police for confidential information.

Heads rolled at Murdoch's News International and the London Metropolitan Police. The scandal, still under investigation, also uncovered the cozy relationship between Murdoch and Britain's political elite.

The Ipsos Reid poll asked whether the same sorts of practices were being used in Canada. Four out of 10 respondents believed they were. Only 16 per cent believed they were not and another 44 per cent weren't sure _ not exactly a ringing endorsement of Canadian media integrity.

Of the 40 per cent who believed the activities were happening in Canada, 71 per cent said both phone hacking and payment for tips were taking place.

Toronto Sun columnist Mike Strobel dumped humourously on the idea that accrediting journalists would ensure they would behave.

"We already have a complexity of curbs, conditions, commandments and controls. Such as the overuse of alliteration.

"There's a raft of libel and contempt of court laws. Not to mention the law of supply and demand — if we don't write good, people don't read us."

The Quebec government has mulled an accreditation system that would give those with credentials preference over non-accredited scribes for things like access to government information and protection of sources.

Critics have attacked the proposal as discriminatory and state interference in a free press, as well as running counter to the explosion of bloggers whose work would be less protected.