NEW REFORMS passed the federal Senate
last week to deliver a package of
measures aimed at modernising Australia’s
media laws to deal with major
business disruption caused by internet
publishing.
Changes include moves to improve
regional media coverage and enhance
diversity but also to formally increase the
ABC’s focus on rural based reporting
and stronger accountability measures.
Labour and the Greens opposed the
historic reforms but the Coalition
government secured a deal at the last
minute, with the support of the
Nick Xenophon Team (NXT) and One Nation, in the
negotiations led by
Communications Minister Mitch Fifield.
The NXT component of the reform package
will see a $50 million Regional and
Small Publishers Innovation fund created; a
regional and small publishers
program to support 200 cadetships; and 60
regional journalism scholarships.
An Australian Competition and Consumer
Commission inquiry into the impact
of the new digital environment on media will
also be conducted.
The deal with One Nation - with leader
and Queensland Senator Pauline Hanson
and other party members highly critical
of the $1 billion per year public
broadcaster’s perceived bias - will see
reforms implemented, as put forward by
Victorian Nationals Senator Bridget
McKenzie, to enhance the ABC's focus on
rural and regional Australia.
The One Nation component of the deal
will also deliver a competitive neutrality
review of the ABC and SBS and a $12m
community radio package.
Regional Australia Institute CEO Jack
Archer said the media reforms
“had to happen”.
But said he couldn’t see how the
mergers to now follow would give any certainty
for the availability of quality
local media in regional areas, in the long term.
“The investment that Xenophon secured
will be useful in the short term for some
small media companies but there’s no
way it’s a game changer,” he said.
“In reality no-one knows what the
regional media landscape is going to look like in
five to 10 years.
“We can get information about local
sporting results and community events on
Facebook but can we rely on these
platforms for scrutiny of local decision makers
or to tell the local stories
about life for people in the bush?
“Once the coming wave of mergers and
restructures in corporate media are finished, government will need to take a
hard look at whether regional people have good
access to independent, quality
sources of local news and information.”
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said
the changes would bring Australia’s media
laws into the 21st century.
“This is all about protecting
Australian jobs - this is all about ensuring that our
media industry is able to
compete effectively with the global online giants,”
he said.
“The laws restricting ownership in the
Australian media were written in a day,
not just before the internet, but
before pay television.
“They were written in another era, in
another age and they should have been
changed a long time ago, but for various
reasons they haven't been, but now they
have.
“My government has delivered reforms
that are long overdue in media and
we’ve done it - this is going to secure the
future of the Australian industry.”
Senator Fifield said Australian media
companies had been “lumbering” under
the shackles of media laws designed in the
1980s when Kylie Minogue was still
singing the ‘Locomotion’.
“They didn't reflect the world that we
lived in and they were constraining our
Australian media businesses from
configuring themselves in ways to best
support
their viability,” he said.
“Thanks to my Coalition colleagues,
thanks to the support of the Prime Minister and
can I particularly single out
Senator Bridget McKenzie from the Nationals and
Senator Dean Smith from my
party, who have been great stewards of this
endeavour with me and with my
crossbench colleagues.
“What this package represents is a shot
in the arm for Australian media
organisations; it will give them a fighting
chance.”
A major component of the government’s
reform package will abolish redundant
media ownership rules that shackle local
media companies and inhibit their ability
to achieve the scale necessary to
compete with foreign tech giants.
Broadcast licence fees have also been
abolished and replaced with a more modest
spectrum charge, while there will
also be a substantial reduction in gambling
advertising during live sport on
all platforms.
But diversity protections have been
retained to ensure multiple controllers of
television and radio licences and
minimum numbers of media voices in all
markets including a minimum of four
independent media voices in regional markets.
The reforms will also see higher
minimum local content requirements for
regional television following trigger
events, including introducing minimum
requirements in markets across Victoria,
SA, NSW, WA and the NT.
Fairfax Media CEO Greg Hywood welcomed
the government’s changes to
modernise media laws, while acknowledging the
industry’s unified position
on the legislation and thanking Malcolm Turnbull,
Senator Fifield and
cross-bench Senators.
Xenophon: reforms
to address internet driven media “crisis”
NXT leader and SA Senator Nick Xenophon
said the legislation dealt with the
regulation of Australia's commercial media
companies “which are in crisis thanks
to the internet's disruption of
established business models for journalism and
publishing”.
“Broadcasters and publishers are
operating in rapid technological change
and intense competition for audiences
and advertising revenue; not only
from other media companies, but perhaps most
fundamentally from
foreign technology companies - Google and Facebook - which
have aggregated
news and content while separating publishers from digital
revenue streams,”
he said.
“Fewer and fewer journalists are
churning out more and more digital product,
but more and more of that is
churnalism: recycled and repackaged PR handouts
and celebrity trivia.
“The production of one form or another
of click-bait appears to be an increasingly
favoured business model in an
environment of declining revenue, constant churn
but ever more shallow
content.
“In this environment increasing PR manipulation,
spin and fake news are i
ndicators of a deep malaise.”
But Senator Xenophon said the NXT
supported the government's legislation to
modernise media regulation and help
the Australian industry to deal more
effectively with the challenges they face.
“Many of us have long presumed that a
free and vibrant media is essential for
a well-informed citizenry and a vibrant
democracy,” he said.
“But it can't be assumed that current
media business models, especially in a
market increasingly dominated by foreign
technology companies, will necessarily
serve that important democratic role.
“I don't think anyone could say our
media industries are healthy today, and with
that our democracy is not healthy
either.”
Senator Xenophon said the NXT and
government’s agreement would establish a
one-off regional and small publishers
innovation fund involving $18m worth of
grants a year over three years, from
the 2018/19 financial year.
He said the government would set up the
fund so that the first round of grants
could be announced no later than June 1
next year.
“The purpose of the fund is to assist
small publishers to transition, compete
and innovate more successfully in a
changing media environment,” he said.
“The grants will be able to be used by
publishers for initiatives that support
the continuation, development, growth
and innovation of Australian civic journalism, including initiatives that
explore and expand the journalism funding model.
“In the context of this agreement
'civic journalism’ is defined as journalism that
has the primary purpose of
investigating and explaining public policy and issues of
public interest or
significance with the aim of engaging citizens in public debate and informing
democratic decision making.
“Grants could be allocated, for
example, to programs and initiatives such as the
purchasing or upgrading of
equipment and software, development of apps, and
training, all of which will
assist in extending civic and regional journalism.
“The criteria should be broad and
flexible, but will not extend to the payment of
salaries or costs directly
associated with a particular journalistic initiative.”
Publishers with an annual turnover of
not less than $300,000 in revenue and
not more than $30 million in revenue will
be eligible.
Large publishers such as News
Corporation and Fairfax will be ineligible and
public broadcasters, while
funding grants would be capped at a maximum of
$1m per year for any media
group.
In addition, NXT and the Government
have agreed to funding that can
provide opportunities for students, including
graduates, in regional areas
to access journalism training.
Culled from:
http://www.queenslandcountrylife.com.au/story/4938074/historic-media-law-changes-deliver-regional-enhancements/?cs=4698
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