It’s not up to Radio-Canada to apologize for using the “n-word” in any of its programming, but rather to the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), Prime Minister François Legault believes.

• Also read: Minister, the CRTC must be called to order!

• Also read: The CRTC wants to force Radio-Canada to apologize for broadcasting the “word in n” on the radio

“I think it’s the CRTC that should apologize,” the prime minister said on the sidelines of a Tuesday afternoon press conference to a rain of applause.

The CRTC directs Radio-Canada to publicly apologize on August 17, 2020 for a column on the show Le 15-18 that mentioned the title of Pierre Vallières’ book Nègres blancs d’Amérique four times.

The federal agency is asking Crown Corporation to “indicate how it intends to mitigate the impact of the ‘N-word’ in this segment of the show” by July 29.

Radio-Canada is also required to report before September 27 on “internal actions and programming best practices” that are being put in place “to ensure we better manage a similar issue in the future.”

Since then, increasing voices have been raised from journalistic, political and cultural circles to urge the state-owned company to challenge the CRTC’s decision.

On Tuesday morning, more than twenty well-known media personalities sent a letter to Radio-Canada CEO Michael Goldbloom, urging the CBC to challenge the CRTC’s decision in court. Among them are MP Christine St-Pierre, former news anchor Bernard Derome and former President of the Quebec Press Council Paule Beaugrand-Champagne.

This letter, published in Le Devoir, was the third such letter since the CRTC blamed the CBC.

The Radio-Canada Ombudsman had also ruled that the use of the “N-word” in this segment did not violate Crown Corporation’s standards and journalistic practices.

Radio-Canada’s Board of Directors will meet this week to coordinate its response to the CRTC.

Société Radio-Canada management, which says it “noted the various opinions raised by the CRTC’s decision,” declined to comment on the filing earlier this week.

“We want to take the necessary time to study the CRTC’s decision and the follow-up action to be taken,” we told the Journal de Québec.