Australia's Current Media Regulations

Should Australia’s Current Media Regulations Be Relaxed?

Over the past two decades the Australian government has undertaken a task of economic liberalisation through a process of deregulation and privatisation. Deregulation of the media industry is now on the agenda. On the 13 July 2006 Senator Coonan, Minister for Communications, Information Technology and the Arts announced a government framework for progressive deregulation of the media industry (Coonan 2006a). Contained within the deregulation framework is a proposal to relax the current media ownership regulation (Coonan 2006a). This paper will briefly outline the current media regulations and discuss the reasons for such regulation. This will be followed by an analysis of the different
This is due to the special role that media plays politically, socially and culturally (Doyle 2000, p. 1, Horwitz 2005, p. 181). The current regulations relating to cross-media ownership in Australia as laid out in the Broadcasting Services Act 1992 stipulates that a company or a company director can only control a license for one form of media (television, radio or newspaper) in any given license area (Commonwealth Consolidated Acts n.d). An example of this may be if a company has a television license in a certain area, they would not be entitled to obtain a radio or newspaper license within that same license area. These regulations were established in an attempt to discourage concentration and support competition in the media industry. This in turn was an attempt to ensure that democracy could properly function and that society at large can have access to a range of relevant, fairly presented views and information (Jackson, 2006, The Australian Communications and Media Authority
There are economic arguments that have been put forward such as the laws of supply and demand (Croteau & Hoynes 2001, p. 67), economies of scale and scope (Doyle 2000, p.22) along with Weinstein’s (2004, pp 161-164) argument of diversity due to audience maximization and profit goals. However these arguments appear to benefit the industry but are unable to unequivocally show the benefits to society and the public interest. It appears that under the laws of supply and demand there will be a decrease in the quality of the news and information provided and it will be targeted toward the most profitable audiences (Champlin & Knoedler 2006, p. 139, Chomsky 2006, p.2, McChesney 2003, p. 130). They fail to address why media owners are not going to abuse the increase in power afforded to them through further consolidation both in political influence and influence of content. Finally the five voices safeguards that senator Coonan (2006a) is proposing does allow for further industry concentration and are weak as it will allow a media proprietor to control the major media platforms in a market provided there are other proprietors still in the market. As there is no comprehensive evidence to prove that relaxation of the media ownership regulations will not be detrimental to