Media Ownership in Australia
Introduction
Although Australia's media ownership laws have remained unchanged for over a decade, debate on the desirability of reform has continued unabated. This debate has been fuelled by the advent of new media technologies, a number of inquiries proposing regulatory changes, and the self-interest of those media organisations that report the controversy. The Government has long indicated that it believed the rules to be anachronistic, and in 2002 unsuccessfully attempted to amend the cross-media ownership restrictions.
The major effect of the laws is to prevent the common ownership of newspapers, television and radio broadcasting licences that serve the same region. The purpose of the legislation is to encourage diversity in the ownership of the most influential forms of the commercial media: the daily press and free-to-air television and radio. The justification for the rules is that the effective functioning of a democracy requires a diverse ownership of the daily mass media to ensure that public life be reported in a fair and open manner.
This e-brief provides background on the issue, together with links to relevant sites and documents. For a comprehensive, well-presented, study released in April 2006 and covering thesame ground as this e-brief, see Content, Consolidation and Clout: How will regional Australia be affected by media ownership changes? The Executive summary and key findings are available online here. The Constitutional Position
The Commonwealth's legislative controls on media ownership can be divided into two broad categories: specific controls relating to broadcasting contained in the Broadcasting Services Act 1992. These derive from the Commonwealth's power to make laws with respect to electronic communications under section 51(v) of the Constitution generic controls relating to commercial activity such as those contained in the Trade Practices Act 1974 and the Foreign Acquisitions and Takeovers Act 1975. These derive from the
Although Australia's media ownership laws have remained unchanged for over a decade, debate on the desirability of reform has continued unabated. This debate has been fuelled by the advent of new media technologies, a number of inquiries proposing regulatory changes, and the self-interest of those media organisations that report the controversy. The Government has long indicated that it believed the rules to be anachronistic, and in 2002 unsuccessfully attempted to amend the cross-media ownership restrictions.
The major effect of the laws is to prevent the common ownership of newspapers, television and radio broadcasting licences that serve the same region. The purpose of the legislation is to encourage diversity in the ownership of the most influential forms of the commercial media: the daily press and free-to-air television and radio. The justification for the rules is that the effective functioning of a democracy requires a diverse ownership of the daily mass media to ensure that public life be reported in a fair and open manner.
This e-brief provides background on the issue, together with links to relevant sites and documents. For a comprehensive, well-presented, study released in April 2006 and covering thesame ground as this e-brief, see Content, Consolidation and Clout: How will regional Australia be affected by media ownership changes? The Executive summary and key findings are available online here. The Constitutional Position
The Commonwealth's legislative controls on media ownership can be divided into two broad categories: specific controls relating to broadcasting contained in the Broadcasting Services Act 1992. These derive from the Commonwealth's power to make laws with respect to electronic communications under section 51(v) of the Constitution generic controls relating to commercial activity such as those contained in the Trade Practices Act 1974 and the Foreign Acquisitions and Takeovers Act 1975. These derive from the