The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation was smacked by the province of Alberta for breaching a budget media embargo in April.

The province announced CBC staff won't be allowed into so-called media lockups for at least a year because of the breach before the province announced its budget on April 22, the Edmonton Journal reported Friday.

Governments in North America and elsewhere routinely release details of budgets and other major issues in advance to the media to allow time for analysis but don't allow that information to go out until a specified time. And they can be very tough on those who violate the rules of those embargoes.

A CBC reporter was found to have made telephone calls that, although while not aired, broke the embargo, the newspaper said.

We can reach no other conclusion than CBC is not taking responsibility for their actions and therefore there must be serious consequences for a very serious incident, provincial spokeswoman Roxanna Benoit, wrote to the CBC.

CBC regional director Don Orchard told the Journal the broadcaster is developing training protocols to make sure it doesn't happy again and said the CBC was in talks with the provincial government about rescinding the ban.

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