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News Limited rejects print regulation

A recent report by former Australian Judge Finkelstein has provoked anger among the Australian newspaper industry

The report, entitled, “Independent Inquiry into the Media and Media Regulation” has suggested that the government should set up a news media regulator in order to monitor all news media, including radio, online services and TV as well as the printed medium.

Commentators argue that Australia already has its own press council and there is no need for further regulation. Currently the Australian Press Council is a self-monitoring body that was set up by the newspaper industry to monitor the practices of print journalism. The judge has also recommended that if the government doesn’t set up an independent statutory body then the Press Council should have its budget increased to $2m per year.

Fairfax Media, News Limited, APN News and Media, and Western Australian Newspapers are to join forces in a bid to format their response to the Finkelstein report. News Limited’s, CEO, Kim Williams said: “The spectre of a government funded overseer of a free press in an open and forward looking democracy like ours cannot be justified.”

Not all media commentators are against the idea of a statutory body. A recent article in the Business Spectator points out that a new government body may well mean that any complaints against the press would have to be taken more seriously than at present and that “frivolous and vexatious” complaints would have to be filtered.

The battle against the report is also raging online. Websites argue that each time they publish something on the net they adhere to the defamation laws as well as ensuring that all comments are moderated. One particular website, Vexnews, believes that the call for the inquiry into press regulation lies with a lack of accurate data and that the politician Bob Brown, allegedly, was one of the main proponents of the inquiry following some less than complimentary articles in papers published by News Limited.

Understandably the news media in Australia is angry about the proposed changes but the opposition doesn’t end with the press. Some political observers believe that the judge is attacking the inalienable right for the country to have a free and independent press. The Financial Review examines in depth the reasons behind the enquiry and also questions the motivation. The judge backed up his assertions against the Sydney Morning Herald by claiming that “at least two readers” had complained against an article in the newspaper.

Australian newspaper publishers and other news outlets have responded favourably to Judge Finkelstein’s recommendation that the Press Council be granted additional funding and the Council itself is in the process of implementing further changes, maybe this will suffice to ward off the threat of government censorship.

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