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Now we the People: 5 March 2003 Don't let Senate independents sell out media ownership laws! The Federal Coalition has recently been given a boost in its attempt to dismantle Australia's already weak media ownership regulations, with independent Senators Meg Lees and Shayne Murphy signalling they may be willing to do a deal with the Government. Senators Lees and Murphy have indicated that they may settle for a deal where a mogul can own two out of three of TV, radio or newspapers, but not all three, in a market. A deal would also apparently come in return for extra funding to the ABC. The ABC will need a lot of funding indeed if it finds itself as one of only three or four media organisations in the country. This sounds far-fetched, but it is entirely possible under the proposed legislation. The Government needs the support of four more Senators to pass this dangerous legislation. With the Greens, Labor and the Democrats against the Bill, this support will have to come from independents Lees, Murphy, Brian Harradine, and One Nation's Len Harris, or from the Democrats. Harradine has shown he will agree to anything if Tasmania gets something out of it. Time is limited! A deal may be done soon. Please contact the Senators listed below to demand that they don't cave in to the power of the media moguls here. Suggested letter: Dear…… It concerns me greatly that the regulations on Australian media ownership may be further relaxed in a deal to pass the Broadcasting Services Amendment (Media Ownership) Bill. The ownership of Australia's media is already among the most concentrated in the world, and ownership would inevitably become even more concentrated should cross-ownership restrictions be watered down or removed. This will mean even less diversity of opinion in the Australian media, which alarms me greatly. I can't see how relaxing ownership restrictions will benefit anyone but the media moguls. The rhetoric about competition and choice does not wash here: we are talking about removing laws that ensure competition, and the outcome will be bigger empires. Where will be the independent voice if Rupert Murdoch also controls television stations and Kerry Packer also controls newspapers? Media diversity will be irrevocably damaged even if Senators succeed in limiting media barons' reach to two different media rather than three. Also, dismantling the foreign ownership restrictions for Australian media could see Australian media outlets become the plaything of huge international conglomerates. I don't want to see American military contractors such as General Electric or global media giants like AOL Time Warner controlling Australia's local media. There is nothing wrong with the current ownership restrictions in Australian media laws. No amount of funding to the ABC can make up for the damage that will be done if ownership is further concentrated. Please don't sell out our interests to the hungry moguls and a Government who are too eager to please them. Thank you.
Senator
Meg Lees Electorate
Office: Senator
Shayne Murphy Electorate
Office: Senator
Brian Harradine Electorate
Office: Senator
Len Harris Electorate
Offices: Senator
Richard Alston Electorate
Office: Senator
John Cherry Electorate
Office: Background The Broadcasting Services Amendment (Media Ownership) Bill 2002 was seen through the House of Representatives by the Liberal/National majority in October 2002, but has stalled in the Senate as the Democrats joined the Greens and Labor in opposing any further removal of restrictions on foreign and cross-ownership of television, radio and newspapers. The Bill removes restrictions on foreign ownership of Australia's media, which is currently limited to 15% of television and radio stations, and 25% of newspaper publishing. Perhaps more concerning, though, is the Bill's potential to remove cross-ownership restrictions. Currently a media proprietor may not be in a position to control more than one of either television channels, radio stations or newspapers in a city or region. This legislation is the reason Kerry Packer doesn't own Fairfax (SMH, The Age, Financial Review, Illawarra Mercury) and Rupert Murdoch doesn't own a television or radio network. But the neoliberal radicals in Government are bent on destroying the already limited diversity we still have in Australian media. The legislation involves removing foreign ownership restrictions altogether, and replacing cross-ownership restrictions with a system where the Australian Broadcasting Authority can issue an "exemption certificate" to a proprietor, permitting cross-ownership of different media. The only check and balance included in the Bill is one of disclosure: If coverage by one organisation includes the business interests of another owned by a network, the broadcaster or publisher must state somewhere in the newspaper, or somewhere in an evening's broadcasting, that they have a cross-media relationship with the other organisation. That's it. In regional areas, networks will be limited to owning two out of the three different media, but this is hardly a significant limit - is the same networks own television and radio, or newspapers and television, it is still a terrible concentration of power. Senator Richard Alston, the Comunications minister, has even had a hard time getting his own party to agree to handing over so much power to media moguls. National Party leader John Anderson wasn't convinced that the regional limit would ensure enough media diversity. Even Liberal MPs were annoyed that Alston, the champion of this Bill, had spent more time consulting with media barons than he had with them. Imagine: Murdoch buys Channel Ten, Packer buys Fairfax, and along with Kerry Stokes the moguls buy up radio networks. Three empires can easily control the vast majority of Australian commercial media. And this may be a better-case scenario, compared with the prospect of Australian media becoming the Pacific outpost of AOL Time Warner, or the plaything of American military contractors such as Westinghouse (who manufacture missile launching systems for the US military and also own CBS TV) or General Electric (who make military jet engines and also own the NBC TV network). Maybe media is just another business, like making weapons, but maybe it has such an important role to play in a society that it must be kept beyond the reach of such TNC conglomerates. Already,
Australian media ownership is among the most concentrated in the world.
Press is dominated by Murdoch's News Limited and to a lesser extent, Fairfax.
Murdoch owns the highest-circulating daily in every Australian State capital,
as well as the only national paper, The Australian. On the box, commercial
television ownership is limited to three networks. One network is owned
by Kerry Packer, another by Kerry Stokes. These networks also control
the majority of regional television broadcasting as well, through WIN
and Prime TV. If these
changes get through, we can expect a rash of mergers and acquisitions
in the Australian media, and we'll be headed down a slippery slope to
a few media empires controlling all Australian commercial media. If you
think there's a lack of diversity now, it can get a lot worse. - Ben Langford
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