The finding led to an obvious question:why is a government-appointed body,the majority of whose members are not journalists,making decisions about journalistic ethics? ACMA looks after everything from spectrum management,technology compliance and broadcast technology to managing spam. Does it really know and understand how journalism works?
It’s a good question,but it’s not the only one we should be asking when it comes to regulating standards in the Australian news media. The truth is,our system for ensuring that Australian journalism is fair,accurate and reliable is broken.
While some sections of the media retain the trust of their readers and subscribers,many Australians either don’t like,respect or – in increasing numbers – don’t use the news media. Thelatest research from the Reuters Institute shows overall trust in Australian journalism continuing to fall (from 43 per cent to 41 per cent). While those paying for online news subscriptions increased a little (up to 18 per cent),newspaper revenue continues to decline and so to do the audiences for major news programs on breakfast and prime-time television.
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One major reason is that,when they have complaints,people don’t feel they are taken seriously or investigated promptly. So while journalists argue among themselves about problems with media regulators,the wider public thinks the bigger problem is with the news media itself. It would like to see more and better regulation of standards,not less.
It’s a wicked problem – parts of the media are not trusted,but neither are the systems meant to build that trust. The last attempt to fix this was more than a decade ago,and it arguably made things worse. The Finkelstein Inquiry of 2012 was established by then Labor government. It concluded the system was broken,but its key recommendation was for the government to fund and establish a compulsory complaints-handling body. Despite all the careful recommendations it made to ensure the body was independent of the government,it was widely condemned and never acted upon. The independence of the news media is something everyone values,and the slightest hint of government control was enough to ensure it never happened. And so the problem remained.
Since then,the journalists’ union,the Media,Entertainment and Arts Alliance,has given notice that it will leave the Press Council,the voluntary body that upholds standards in the print news media,as it thinks it is ineffectual. Significant numbers of newspapers are not or have never been members,includingThe Guardian,The West Australian and Australian Community media,which represents more than 140 leading rural and regional newspapers and websites. The Press Council’s funding is under pressure and not enough people understand what it is and how it works.It now relies on News Corp for as much as 60 per cent of its funding,which creates real and perceived concerns of its own.