The controversy about media groups using unpaid interns is not confined to Britain. A row has broken out over the practice in Canada following the Ontario government's demand that two magazines - Toronto Life and The Walrus - start paying their interns.
The publisher of both titles, St Joseph Media, was accused by the government of violating provincial labour laws. It responded by dispensing with the internship programmes.
Another Toronto-based magazine owned by Torstar, The Grid, reacted by dismissing five unpaid interns.
The Walrus offered four-to-six-month internships in which people were expected to work for "approximately 35 hours per week, unpaid."
In a notice on its website, the magazine criticised the provincial government, saying it had helped many young Canadians bridge the gap from university to paid-for work.
St Joseph's chief executive. Douglas Knight, in an interview with J-Source, said: "Everyone knows that we can't afford it and the magazine industry is just trying to stay alive."
He said he would "love to pay" interns, but "we can't even afford to give our regular staff annual cost-of-living increases."
Journalists appear to be split on the issue. Some argue that it offers valuable work experience while others view it as an unfair practice.
Toronto Star columnist - and former journalistic intern - Heather Mallick believes "unpaid interns are this generation's slaves". She points to a "new phenomenon of the serial intern" a 30-something person with rich parents who goes from one unpaid post to another.
"The low point of my second internship," she writes, "was being told by an editor that I wouldn't be hired unless I had sex with him. I quit instantly." She continues:
"There are three assumptions behind asking people to go unpaid. 1. You should be honoured to work in this industry. 2. Young people are easy marks. 3. You will eventually be employed. All three may be false, in a fracturing employment world."
Sources: Canadianmags.blogspot/Toronto Star/canada.com/J-Source.ca
