IT hasn't been a good couple of weeks for those of us who are making a career in journalism.
The fallout from the News of the World phone hacking scandal has reverberated across the world. The deplorable actions of those at that newspaper has served to only increase the scrutiny of the ethics and actions of media organisations in the United Kingdom but also others in News Limited's worldwide network — which includes significant operations in its chief executive Rupert Murdoch's home country of Australia.
By virtue of the nature of the methods used by the News of the World to intercept phone messages, we would forgive anyone in the general public for not becoming a little more cynical about the measures that some members of the media will go to to get a good story.
But it has been particularly interesting that some prominent Australian political figures have taken the opportunity to seize on the outrage which has greeted the uncovering of the scandal in the UK to suggest that a inquiry should be conducted into media ethics in our country — particularly given they admit there is no evidence that tactics used to obtain stories in the UK are employed here.
Liberal leader Tony Abbott is riding a popularity wave at the moment — not surprisingly he doesn't see the need for an inquiry. But we do know that many on the conservative side of politics have accused the ABC and Fairfax's The Age newspaper of having a leftist bias.
News Limited chief executive and chairman John Hartigan said last night he believed an inquiry into journalistic conduct would be "totally unnecessary".
"You've got a statutory authority that looks at broadcast media, and I would argue that the behaviours of the press which operate under the Press Council, which is funded by ourselves, are no different to the behaviours of those that operate under a statutory organisation (the Australian Communications and Media Authority)," Mr Hartigan told ABC's 7.30.
"I know the newsrooms. I know how cultures develop and I'm hugely confident that there's no improper or unethical behaviour in our newsrooms."
He said the company would cooperate with any inquiry but found it disturbing Senator Brown wanted one that canvassed editorial content, including comment, analysis and opinion.
Mr Hartigan said the culture in the British media was different from that in Australia.
"They're very aggressive newspapers," he said. They're very sensational, they deal with people's lives, private lives and some of the behaviours that have come out are obviously being driven by the need to get in front of each other. I would argue very strenuously that we don't have those behaviours in Australia."
Lawyers yesterday debated whether the government had the same extent of powers over the print media as it does over radio and television, because it owns the communications spectrum.
Justin Quill, director of KellyHazellQuill Lawyers, said the issue was "not necessarily clear cut".
"(The commonwealth has) a specific authority over radio and broadcast through their telecommunication powers and control of the spectrum but they don't have any specific powers to regulate print," Mr Quill said. "In my view and experience, the actions of the Australian print media are ethical and do not warrant any government intervention."
Ms Gillard said the media could head off criticism by lifting its game. "If I could put it as clearly as I can . . . 'don't write crap'," she said. "Can't be that hard. And when you have written complete crap, then I think you should correct it."
The proposed inquiry, likely to be conducted by the Senate, would come amid a separate government "convergence review" of media ownership, local content and other rules for the telecommunications sector, television, radio and the internet.
The media last underwent a regulatory shake-up of ownership and other rules five years ago. The Australian understands opposition communications spokesman Malcolm Turnbull is not sympathetic towards a new inquiry.
Australian Press Council chairman Julian Disney said he did not believe standards in print journalism were lower than in the broadcast media, which is governed by ACMA.
He said the council was already undergoing changes to toughen its sanctions, develop new standards and attract funding from sources other than newspaper and magazine proprietors and warned that a new inquiry could slow or stall that work and take away from the convergence review.
Mr Hartigan said there was a greater diversity of media ownership now than at any time in Australian history and challenged Senator Brown's call for curbs on foreign ownership of Australian media.
"One of his suggestions is that media assets should be Australian-owned," Mr Hartigan said. "Does the senator mean companies like Google, Yahoo, Facebook or Twitter should not operate in Australia or that Channel Nine and Channel Seven should get rid of their foreign shareholders?"
University of NSW professor George Williams said there was "clear scope" for the commonwealth to further regulate newspapers under the Corporations Act. "But it couldn't impede the ability of the press to engage in political discussion and debate across its pages," he said.
No comments:
Post a Comment