CanWest Global donates $1 million to Media Studies at University of Western Ontario

r> Gift will create the CanWest Global Fellowship in Media and The David Vienneau Scholarship WINNIPEG, Dec. 2 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ - Canada's largest media company CanWest Global Communications Corp. is giving $1 million to the Faculty of Information and Media Studies at The University of Western Ontario. The gift, which will be paid in equal instalments over the next five years, was announced at Western this morning. It is being endowed to permanently establish the CanWest Global Fellowship in Media, and The David Vienneau Journalism Scholarship. The role of the CanWest Fellow will be to enrich academic programs in the study of media, expand research on significant topics in Canadian media, and promote public discussion on a range of issues related to the nature of Canadian media and the media industry within Canada, including the business of media in Canada. The position will be advertised widely and successful applicants may include media professionals and/or academics with interests in the media. "CanWest's gift will allow for substantial contributions to be made on an ongoing basis to the study of media in this country," says Paul Davenport, University of Western Ontario's President. "Students will be benefit from this generous contribution for many years to come. We thank CanWest for choosing Western and we eagerly await the appointment of the first CanWest Fellow." Appointments to the Fellowship will be for one term (4 months) during each academic year. David Asper, CanWest Executive Vice President and Chairman of the National Post, says this two pronged gift will be beneficial to the long term health of Canadian journalism. "Western has been producing some of the best journalists and media professionals for some time now. This is an opportunity for CanWest to contribute to the additional growth of those graduates by giving them access to a mid-career media executive or academic which they otherwise would not have. In addition, the David Vienneau scholarship is an opportunity to remember one of the truly good people in Canadian journalism. The Western graduate and Global Ottawa bureau chief defined high quality journalism and journalism ethics and we wanted to ensure his memory lived on." Students entering the Master of Arts in Journalism Degree Program will have the opportunity to be considered for The David Vienneau Journalism Scholarship, the most valuable and prestigious award in the Journalism Program at Western. Vienneau, who graduated from Western's Journalism Program in 1975, covered federal politics for 23 years. He died one year ago yesterday (December 1, 2004) after a brief but courageous battle with pancreatic cancer. He was well known to viewers as Global TV's Ottawa Bureau Chief since 1998. He was deeply respected by his peers, and those he covered on the national scene in Ottawa. "Tributes flowed from both inside and outside the House of Commons upon news of his death, and included comments from Prime Minister Paul Martin," says Catherine Ross, Dean of the Faculty of Information and Media Studies. "David made a tremendous contribution to journalism in Canada, and he embraced the new world of multi-media reporting. Western was always proud to call him an alumnus, and we are honoured that CanWest has selected Western as the home of a scholarship in his name." Vienneau is survived by his wife Nicole Baer, who travelled to London, Ontario for today's announcement, daughter Jordyn, and Nicole and Matthew, a daughter and son from a previous marriage. CanWest Global Communications Corp. (NYSE: CWG; TSX: CGS.SV and CGS.NV, http://www.canwestglobal.com), an international media company, is Canada's largest media company. In addition to owning the Global Television Network, CanWest is Canada's largest publisher of daily newspapers, and also owns, operates and/or holds substantial interests in conventional television, out-of-home advertising, specialty cable channels, web sites and radio stations and networks in Canada, New Zealand, Australia, Ireland and the United Kingdom.

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