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Transcontinental Satisfied With Judgment in Métro Newspaper Case

Press release from the issuing company

Montreal, July 15, 2004 – Today, the Quebec Court of Appeal rejected Sun Media Corporation Inc.’s appeal in its case against the Société de Transport de Montréal and Publications Métropolitaines Inc. In their unanimous judgment, Justices André Brossard, Thérèse Rousseau-Houle and François Pelletier dismissed the appeal of Quebecor Inc.’s subsidiary, which alleged a violation of its right to freedom of the press under the Canadian and Quebec charters of rights. The Quebec Court of Appeal also confirmed the validity of the exclusivity agreement granted by the Société de transport de Montréal to the newspaper Métro, a publication owned by Publications Métropolitaines Inc., a partnership between Transcontinental Media Inc., Metro International S.A. and Gesca Ltd. Transcontinental management is very pleased with the judgment, which encourages it to pursue its efforts to make Métro, already read by 441,000 readers a week, a newspaper that exceeds the exacting standards set by its readers, its advertisers and its partners. Furthermore, Transcontinental management noted that the Court of Appeal recognized the purely commercial character of the activities in this instance, and held that the violations of freedom of the press alleged by Quebecor were minimal and fully justifiable for reasons of security and management of the transit system. It is for these reasons, specific to the subway system, that Publications Métropolitaines and the STM had entered into an exclusivity agreement for the distribution of the Métro newspaper. The Quebec Court of Appeal confirms that this agreement does not in any way infringe upon Sun Media’s rights to free expression or freedom of the press.