Far-right website not eligible for journalism tax credits, Federal Court rules

A Federal Court judge has upheld the government’s decision that far-right media outlet Rebel News doesn’t qualify for journalism tax credits because it doesn’t produce enough original content.

Rebel News applied in May 2021 to be designated as a qualified Canadian journalism organization, but was rejected by the Canada Revenue Agency, which found that less than one per cent of its content was original news.

The outlet sought a judicial review in Federal Court, but in a decision Wednesday, Justice Ann Marie McDonald found the agency’s decision was reasonable.

McDonald’s ruling notes that the revenue agency assessed 423 news reports from Rebel News in a three-week period and found that only 10 were original.

The decision states that 283 of the reports “were not based on facts, nor were multiple perspectives actively pursued, researched, analyzed, or explained by a journalist for the organization.”

Another 135 of the reports were identified as “curated content or material rewritten from other sources.”

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The official designation allows news outlets to claim the Canadian journalism labour tax credit and their subscribers to claim the digital news subscription tax credit.

– With files from INsauga.com