StateState of of the the News News Print Print Media Media in in Australia Australia 20072007 a supplement to the 2006 Report

State of the News Print Media in Australia 2007 Supplement to the 2006 report

Editor: Jack R Herman

Published by Australian Press Council Sydney, Australia

18 October 2007

Australian Press Council Suite10.02, 117 York St Sydney, NSW, 2000

T: 61 2 9261 1930 • F: 61 2 9267 6826 [email protected] • www.presscouncil.org,au

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Contents

Contents ...... 3 About the Australian Press Council ...... 6 1. Introduction to the 2007 Supplement ...... 7 2. Audience ...... 10 2.1 Titles & ownership ...... 10 2.2 Readership ...... 11 Metropolitan/national dailies Monday-Friday ...... 12 Metropolitan/national dailies Saturdays ...... 12 Metropolitan/national Sundays ...... 12 Readership methods being reviewed ...... 13 2.3 Circulation ...... 13 Metropolitan and national newspapers ...... 14 Circulation of metropolitan and national dailies June 2002 - June 2007 ...... 14 Metropolitan/national dailies Monday-Friday ...... 14 Metropolitan/national dailies Saturday ...... 15 Metropolitan/national Sundays ...... 15 Regional dailies ...... 15 Community newspapers ...... 16 Circulation trends in the suburban Leader newspaper group 2001-2007 ...... 17 Ethnic language newspapers ...... 17 Magazines ...... 17 2.4 Websites visits ...... 17 News websites - Unique Browsers (UBs) ...... 18 3. Media Ownership – law and impact ...... 19 3.1 Moves in the marketplace ...... 19 4. Convergence...... 21 4.1 On-line News 2007 ...... 21 4.2 Where are newsrooms going? - An Age perspective ...... 23

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4.3 Where are newsrooms going? - A News Limited view ...... 25 5. Contemporary issues in the Australian press ...... 27 5.1 Blogging in Australian metropolitan dailies ...... 27 Blogging developmental processes ...... 27 Other metropolitan newspapers ...... 28 Conclusion ...... 30 5.2 Self-regulation of on-line news ...... 30 5.3 Issues in press ethics ...... 32 Blogs ...... 32 Spin/sources ...... 33 Off the record ...... 35 AFL drug case ...... 36 6. Content: Is election reporting biased? ...... 38 6.1 Introduction ...... 38 Findings ...... 38 6.2 Content: Report on the Courier-Mail coverage of the 2006 Queensland election ...... 40 Executive summary ...... 40 Newspaper vested interest in the campaign process ...... 41 The sports analogy ...... 42 Leaders’ leading role ...... 42 The advantages of government ...... 43 Real news, in-depth: not the top priority ...... 44 Visual and digital journalism on the rise ...... 44 Key statistics ...... 45 Story type ...... 45 Content type ...... 45 Story mood ...... 45 Story setting ...... 45 Story sources...... 45 Story placement ...... 45

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Story scale, visuals ...... 45 Party ...... 45 Tone of party coverage ...... 46 Leader ...... 46 Leader performance ...... 46 Coverage of issues ...... 46 Queensland election 9 September 2006...... 46 6.3 Report on The Age coverage of the 2006 Victorian election ...... 49 Introduction ...... 49 The issues ...... 49 The minor contenders ...... 52 The Campaign ...... 53 The result ...... 57 Summary ...... 58 7. Press Freedom 2007 ...... 59 Anti-terrorism and related legislation ...... 59 Court action to inhibit the free flow of information ...... 61 Access to government information ...... 61 Defamation ...... 62 Privacy ...... 64 The impact of ownership and control on access to information and images...... 64 Conclusion ...... 65 8. Notes, bibliography etc ...... 66 Development of the Supplement ...... 66 Chapter 2...... 66 List of magazines used in circulation figures: ...... 66 Chapter 4...... 67 Selected sources for “On-line news 2007” ...... 67 Chapter 6...... 68 Notes on the methodology of the analyses ...... 68 Contributors ...... 69 5 Se ting eumsan er irit ulput ad et la facipsustio et ad enisisA ustraliannulputpate Press tet, Council senismolor iril irit prat, quamet, www.presscouncil.org.au/snpma/index_snpma2007.html [email protected] p 5 StateState of of the the News News Print Print Media Media in in Australia Australia 20072007 a supplement to the 2006 Report

About the Australian Press Council

The Australian Press Council Incorporated is the self-regulatory body of the print media. It was established in 1976 by the print media industry, with no government involvement, and has two main aims: • to ensure that the free press acts responsibly and ethically and • to help preserve the traditional freedom of the press within Australia. To carry out its former function, it serves as a forum to which anyone may take a complaint concerning questions of editorial ethics (but not about advertising or the commercial operations) in the press. It settles over half of all such complaints by conciliation. In its attempts to preserve the freedom of the press, which is in essence the freedom of the people to be informed, it keeps a watching brief on developments that might impinge on such freedoms and makes representations to governments, parliaments, the courts and other relevant bodies. The Council is funded by the newspaper and magazine industries, although it is independent from interference from its constituent bodies, and its authority rests on the willingness of publishers and editors to respect the Council’s views, to adhere voluntarily to ethical standards and to admit mistakes publicly. The Council consists of 22 members, representing the publishers, journalists and members of the public, and is chaired by an independent Chairman. It meets every six weeks, usually in Sydney, where it maintains a small office, headed by the Executive Secretary. One of the main items on the agenda at each meeting is the consideration and adjudication of any complaints referred to it. The Council is an incorporated association that has the power to amend its own Constitution, with the approval of the constituent bodies. It has wide powers to determine and vary its internal structures and procedures. Further information on the Council can be found at http://www.presscouncil.org.au

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1. Introduction to the 2007 Supplement

Professor Ken McKinnon, Chairman Australian Press Council

The year since the Press Council published the initial State of the News Print Media in Australia 2006 in October 2006 has seen enormous changes in the Australian media landscape, necessitating this supplement to bring the state of the news print media up- to-date. The transition, evident at that time, towards making news available on-line, involving the convergence of print, photography and video to tell vital stories, has since become the settled way forward, although metropolitan companies are well in advance of regional and rural companies in implementing the new business model. So strong is belief in a multi-media future that companies are drastically changing newsrooms (and sometimes company locations) to better realise their new business models. The new newsroom generally groups Internet and print editors around the same table. Editors feed news continuously to the most suitable medium or channel, often initially on-line and not reserving lead stories to the next day’s paper edition. Print editions have been forced to make complementary changes often now devoting relatively more space to explanation. Journalists and editors are having to learn new skills suited to the demands of the different media. So far, however, the print versions of newspapers are still to a large extent setting the agenda for other media, especially radio and TV. The changes made necessary by technological developments have been accompanied by other changes, especially the changes made in long-standing Australian media law in February, which allow both consolidation of media companies and greater foreign ownership. For newspapers, the changes in ownership laws have resulted in the merger of Fairfax and Rural Press, and more consolidation of fewer regional newspapers and fewer owners. Circulation and readership numbers for printed newspapers (without adding in Internet figures) are still holding up better in Australia than in most other urbanised countries. Year-on-year there is very nearly a steady state position overall, with a slight decline Monday to Friday in tabloid newspaper circulation around Australia. Blogging associated with newspaper websites (as well as blogging on a variety of sites) has markedly increased. Newspaper sites have already found that it is essential to maintain editorial oversight and to be willing quickly to take down any comments outside the standard considerations of fairness and balance, not to mention those that are possibly defamatory. The Press Council is widening its remit to include news sites that have or wish to gain reputations for accuracy, fairness and balance. The Council will accept applications for membership from those willing to abide by both its long- standing principles, and privacy standards, and willing to police some additional blog ‘etiquette’ requirements, covering civilised discourse, an absence of threats and extreme language, currently being finalised. A significant development has been the unprecedented initiative taken by newspaper

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proprietors, acting collectively, to establish a new organisation, The Newspaper Works, to reaffirm to advertisers in particular that newspapers offer them a better and more influential platform than other media and, complementarily, to improve total newspaper circulation and readership. The new organisation has also undertaken, in conjunction with polling organisations, to try to improve the techniques used to measure circulation and readership of print editions and to measure newspaper website traffic accurately. During the year, Rupert Murdoch, whose world-wide company, News Ltd, owns over 100 newspapers including key titles in Australia, has insisted that content is the key to the future. In pursuit of this belief, at least in part, News has made a successful takeover bid for the powerful Dow Jones Corporation, widely respected for the quality of its offerings. The unanswerable question at this point is whether the consequence will be more quality content feeding into Australian newspapers, whether any such news source will be at the expense of local reporting, or, alternatively, result in expanded Australian journalistic resources. In Australia the quality of the content of daily newspapers is presently being debated around two topics, separation of news and comment, and media ethics. There is increasing criticism of the way newspapers often fail to make a clear distinction between objective reporting of the news and comment on it, that is, journalists apparently actively seeking influence, whether in politics, business or sport. A perennial debate, but one brought into sharp relief in a national election year. For the Press Council, the most interesting aspect is the absence in some newspapers of evidence of clear editorial policies and enough editorial leadership to ensure readers can always distinguish between fact and opinion. Media ethics have had an extended airing as a consequence of the Australian Treasurer being ‘outed’ after claiming to have been misrepresented in comments made when speaking ‘off-the-record’ to three journalists over dinner two years ago. The incontrovertible evidence that has emerged so far is that there are tangled relationships between politicians and the journalists who report politics, in this case in Canberra, but no doubt equally in State parliaments, without readers of newspapers always knowing the worth of reported information or the ethical background being made clear. The Press Council’s contribution to understanding the balance in the reporting of elections is included in this Supplement, in the form of research reports on the Victorian and the Queensland elections held in late 2006. The basic intent was to gather empirical data relating to the coverage, balance, fairness and possible bias of newspapers in election periods, but the research goes further with evidence of such matters as a longer-term trend toward presidential-style elections, where reportage centres on the leaders and where there is close control of the flow of information. The studies add other information about the small amount of open debate and that ministers and their opposition shadows are much less well reported. The coverage illuminates the main issues in each state, even to the point of the newspaper, in the absence of opposition advocacy, analysing issues that ought to be addressed. No evidence of bias was found by the analyses.

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Another significant development during the year, again involving media proprietors collectively, has been a resolve to conduct a full Public Right to Know audit of the many restrictions on freedom of the press that the Council has been monitoring for years and which it covered in the 2006 Report. Due to its adjudicatory responsibilities the Press Council is not the appropriate body to carry advocacy into lobbying, but it is very pleased that action to overcome restrictions is being taken since trends in the availability of information that the public has a right to know particularly from governments have again been negative in the last year. There is not really any chance that the accumulation of restrictions can be reversed in the context of the forthcoming federal election, but a start might be possible. The excessive security measures associated with the recent APEC meeting (September 2007) also underlined the risks to democracy and freedom of movement arising from action taken for the right reasons, if it is subsequently left in place and kept available for less admirable use. The year has seen one other important development worthy of mention here. International sporting organisations have for some time sought restrictions on free access by journalists to sporting contests and associated press conferences, including an attempt, aborted at the last moment, to limit accreditation and/or charge fees for those covering the cricket test match series in Australia in 2006-2007. Apparently world sports bodies are confident that their product is so important that everyone should pay for the information about it, or that it would not matter if newspapers stopped covering sporting events. The public interest is not part of their thinking. This year the trend accelerated with a strong push to restrict accreditation and coverage of the current Rugby World Cup contests. A coalition of the major organisations, including international wire services, resisted the Rugby proposals, stating that they would not cover the event at all unless less restrictive accreditation could be negotiated. Even though negotiations went down to the day of the first match, sanity prevailed. A fairly favourable compromise was reached for the World Cup and negotiations are to continue to ensure reportage of world sporting events can continue. The compromise does not mean that the trend has been stopped, simply that a skirmish has been won, with more battles to come. Overall, it has been landscape-changing year. Many changes are in their initial stages, without their eventual effect on the State of the News Print Media in Australia 2006 being able to be forecast in any detail.

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2. Audience

Jack Herman, Executive Secretary, Australian Press Council

In the State of the News Print Media in Australia 2006 there were detailed chapters on the numbers of newspaper and magazine titles and on the historical and current circulation and readership. In addition to updating circulation and readership data by inclusion of 2007 figures, this supplement provides the most recently available data on website usage and, hence, more complete data on the state of the news print media audience. Notwithstanding the rise of other media, there appears to have been no significant diminution of public interest in buying and reading national and metropolitan newspapers in the last year. There have been the usual increases and decreases in the audited circulation and polled readership of individual titles but overall the figures remain fairly robust. Additionally, the accessing of newspapers via their on-line sites, with greater information becoming available about the number of visitors to such news sites, suggests that any losses in circulation through lesser sales of the printed version has been exceeded by gains through on-line visits. There have been significant changes in the methods used by the Audit Bureau of Circulation in assessing the number of newspapers sold in the interest of greater accuracy. The Bureau is now auditing circulation more frequently and analysing those figures to show more clearly the types of sales. While these changes appear to have met the demands for greater accuracy in the auditing of circulation, debates about methods of assessing ‘readership’ continue as indicated below. Similarly, there are now questions about how best to assess the number of visitors to newspaper websites, and how to assess their usage of those sites, so that a more complete set of data on ‘circulation’ as a whole can be put together. One question that remains unanswered is: do visits to newspaper websites indicate additional readers, so that the total is taken to indicate a greater level of ‘circulation’? Or are those accessing newspaper websites supplementing their print experience? Overall the proportion of the national population over 14 years of age reading newspapers continues to be around 54 per cent for Monday to Friday editions and 63 and 65 per cent for the Saturday and Sunday editions, respectively. Notwithstanding the rise of other media, a large proportion of the Australian reading- age public continues to buy and read national, metropolitan and regional newspapers regularly. An even bigger number reads the (mostly) free community newspapers. 2.1 Titles & ownership The significant ownership change during the year has been the merger of the two large companies, Rural Press and Fairfax Media, leaving only one metropolitan daily paper, The West Australian, controlled by proprietors independent of News Limited and Fairfax. There have been no newspaper closures in the past twelve months and one new

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metropolitan outlet opened, the exclusively online brisbanetimes.com.au, published by Fairfax Media. Currently there are 52 daily English-language newspapers (two national, 13 metropolitan, 36 regional and one suburban). Additionally there are eleven metropolitan Sunday newspapers. The number of regional daily titles has remained constant at 36 over that period, although some of what were formerly independent publishing companies have become part of the larger entities, with Fairfax Media (largely through Rural Press) being the major buyer. This trend has continued and there are now only two family-controlled regional dailies, those in Shepparton and Mildura. The remainder are owned by News, Fairfax and APN News and Media (with West Australian Newspapers controlling one other). News Limited acquired the largely Sydney-based FPC Courier Newspapers and, thus, acquired a dozen or so additional titles. Otherwise there have not been significant changes in the Suburban/Community newspapers (180 titles). The Country Press category newspapers (about 240 titles) and the Regional Community category newspapers (around 160 titles) also remain steady, although some of the titles were acquired by the larger publishers as a part of the deals that saw regional dailies change hands in Albury, Wagga Wagga and Mount Isa. Most of the country and regional community newspapers have relatively small circulations but stress local news content. Many bush radio stations continue to rely on them for local news content. As previously reported, some of these suburban/community newspapers contain comprehensive local news and information and have substantial circulation (e.g., The St George & Sutherland Shire Leader with 135,000), while others vary from being little more than advertising vehicles to papers with substantial news content. In addition to the Anglophone press, there are more than a hundred non-English language newspapers, nine of them dailies (four of which are in Chinese languages and the others in Greek, Italian, Korean, Serbian and Vietnamese). The magazine market has hundreds of titles, the dominant proprietors being ACP Magazines (eleven of the top circulation 20), Pacific Magazines (four of the top 20) and Federal Publishing (two of the top 20), recently acquired by News Limited. Very few are news magazines, with only four significant titles in this area. 2.2 Readership Readership figures are universally larger than circulation figures, on the basis that newspapers and magazines that come into a household, company or institution are usually read by more than one person. Australian readership figures for large metropolitan newspapers are near the lower end of the range established in international readership surveys, that is, within the range of 3.5-4.0 times the circulation. Updated readership figures for metropolitan newspapers are in the tables below. Between 2006 and 2007, during the week, four metropolitan newspapers (The Australian, The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and the Courier-Mail) increased readership, while The West Australian has remained steady during the week, and the

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remainder declined. The one national and two state-based broadsheets all showed rises in readership, while the tabloid-format newspapers generally declined. Ironically, the one tabloid that increased in readership, Brisbane’s Courier-Mail, might have done so as a result of its recent conversion from broadsheet to tabloid format. The steady state or loss of readership of Saturday editions of all but the Melbourne Herald Sun and the Brisbane Courier-Mail in must be causing proprietors concern. The Sydney Morning Herald and the Hobart Mercury were steady state, but others lost ground on Saturdays, some quite dramatically, with The Financial Review, The Canberra Times and The Age being in the latter group The Sunday newspapers, outside Sydney and Melbourne, have also had declines.

Readership of metropolitan and national dailies June 2001- June 2007 (000s)

Metropolitan/national dailies Monday-Friday Title 2007 2006 2005 2004 2003 2002 2001 The Australian 449 416 416 420 459 428 430 The Financial Review 258 268 270 275 296 287 291 The Daily Telegraph 1,158 1,183 1,194 1,132 1,224 1,211 1,151 The Sydney Morning Herald 893 876 883 856 895 897 817 The Canberra Times 103 122 129 119 121 111 118 The Herald Sun (Vic) 1,467 1,523 1,484 1,553 1,487 1,508 1,522 The Age 749 724 721 706 700 676 649 The Courier-Mail 614 596 616 626 606 585 594 The Adelaide Advertiser 542 573 564 569 584 580 576 The West Australian 583 584 606 599 576 621 627 The Mercury 128 131 124 131 130 131 132

Metropolitan/national dailies Saturdays Title 2007 2006 2005 2004 2003 2002 2001 The Australian 824 843 870 874 917 911 901 The Financial Review 154 181 162 176 178 188 192 The Daily Telegraph 964 981 982 895 982 996 937 The Sydney Morning Herald 1,176 1,176 1,206 1,255 1,331 1307 1279 The Canberra Times 160 178 190 174 180 179 188 The Herald Sun (Vic) 1,404 1,384 1,409 1,445 1,404 1464 1424 The Age 854 960 988 992 1009 1070 1059 The Courier-Mail 874 870 891 941 941 940 935 The Adelaide Advertiser 691 734 732 725 752 741 731 The West Australian 925 969 998 1022 1035 1045 1044 The Mercury 153 154 151 155 156 161 160

Metropolitan/national Sundays Title 2007 2006 2005 2004 2003 2002 2001 The Sunday Telegraph 1,785 1,818 1,891 1796 1949 1924 1914 The Sun-Herald 1,362 1,354 1,421 1429 1492 1519 1530 The Canberra Times 94 103 112 105 109 103 108 The Sunday Herald Sun 1,532 1,531 1,583 1589 1508 1530 1478 The Sunday Age 732 699 652 665 654 659 660 The Sunday Mail (Qld) 1,473 1,493 1,492 1487 1494 1418 1465 The Sunday Mail (SA) 739 790 790 785 783 807 804 The Sunday Times (WA) 840 854 916 912 897 890 922 The Sunday Tasmanian 142 148 142 139 136 137 141 Source Roy Morgan Research 12 Se ting eumsan er irit ulput ad et la facipsustio et ad enisisA ustraliannulputpate Press tet, Council senismolor iril irit prat, quamet, www.presscouncil.org.au/snpma/index_snpma2007.html [email protected] p 12 StateState of of the the News News Print Print Media Media in in Australia Australia 20072007 a supplement to the 2006 Report

Readership methods being reviewed

Australia’s major newspaper publishers launched a review of the readership measurement system in January 2007, managed by the newspaper industry’s marketing body, The Newspaper Works, which has retained an independent consultant to advise on the project. The Newspaper Works CEO, Tony Hale, said the review would examine the latest developments in audience measurement for all types of media in Australia and internationally. According to Tony Hales, the review will examine how newspaper readership data can be improved so that publishers can provide advertisers with the most detailed possible portrait of their audiences. On- line readership is one obvious area where new data is needed to track the expanding reach of newspapers. The review will also explore ways to make readership data more accurate, informative, useful and authoritative and examine the depth with which readers engage with newspapers and how this compares with other forms of media. In the first stage The Newspaper Works will be working with Roy Morgan Research to identify how to enhance the current system and make better use of the data already being collected. The second stage of the review will include extensive consultation with all parts of the industry including the Media Federation of Australia, the Advertising Federation of Australia, the Australian Association of National Advertisers and the Magazine Publishers of Australia. There has been on-going debate between the publishers and Roy Morgan Research about the company’s readership measurement techniques, as reported in detail in the State of the News Print Media in Australia 2006.

2.3 Circulation A caveat needs to be made about any attempt to compare 2007 figures with those from July 2006 and earlier. In May 2006 the Audit Bureau of Circulations adopted a new set of rules, coming into effect in July 2006, so true like-for-like data comparisons will not be possible and there can be no genuine comparison to previous reporting of net paid sales until 2008. The new rules mandated the introduction of four audits per year, each covering thirteen weeks for national, metropolitan and Sunday newspapers, weekly magazines and regional dailies with circulation greater than 25,000, replacing the previous system of six-monthly audits supplemented by six month rolling publisher’s statements. Other changes include: • increased disclosure of the composition of net paid sales - to delineate different types of sales; • simplification of the audit rules - including clearer definitions that make it easier for publishers and advertisers to understand and use as the basis for decision making; and • a new audit inspection role to strengthen the compliance regime and increase the

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transparency of the audit process as well upgrading leadership and supervision of the audits. The new rules mean that there will now be far greater transparency in knowing the various elements that make up the “Average Net Paid Sales” and through the increase in audit frequency there should be a much stronger confidence in the data integrity. Given those reservations, the latest data indicate that during the week, Monday to Friday, there has been a slight fall in circulation but about 2.3 million Australians buy one or more national and metropolitan newspapers. That number of purchases increases on Saturday and again on Sundays, although it would appear that Sunday newspapers have suffered from a greater decline. Historical figures for circulation are in the State of the News Print Media in Australia 2006 and can be accessed there.

Metropolitan and national newspapers

The 2006-2007 circulation statistics appear to reinforce the same trends as seen in the readership figures (above). The national and state-based broadsheet newspapers have slightly increased circulation (the sole exception to the matching of readership trends is that the Financial Review has increased circulation despite an apparent drop in readership) but the various state-based tabloids (except for The Courier-Mail) have suffered small circulation falls. The Sunday papers (except for The Sunday Age) seem to have suffered the most consistent fall. National circulation figures (for metropolitan and national dailies, and Sundays, excluding the afternoon free commuter newspapers, Mx in Sydney and Melbourne, and the new brisbanetimes.com.au website) for the year ending June 2007, set out in the following tables are still reasonably encouraging for proprietors. In short, the overall picture for circulation through the printed copy is pretty steady as you go. Overall, Australian figures continue to compare favourably with reported circulation losses in the UK and average U.S. circulation losses.

Circulation of metropolitan and national dailies June 2002 - June 2007

Metropolitan/national dailies Monday-Friday Title 2007 2006 2005 2004 2003 2002 The Australian 133,000 131,538 133,841 133,711 132,213 130,378 The Financial Review 88,264 86,182 85,373 85,366 85,120 88,674 The Canberra Times 33,935 36,027 36,695 38,155 38,813 38,694 The Daily Telegraph 392,000 396,497 397,915 403,127 407,498 406,200 Sydney Morning Herald 212,700 212,078 210,085 216,827 225,737 228,800 The Age 207,000 201,000 193,000 198,500 197,700 197,700 The Herald Sun 535,000 554,700 551,500 551,100 550,032 548,764 The Courier-Mail 221,049 216,075 211,279 214,814 219,451 215,371 The Advertiser 191,325 195,903 201,323 202,135 204,502 203,582 The West Australian 203,328 205,610 207,914 205,362 205,266 207,793 The Mercury 46,985 48,886 49,601 50,382 50,368 49,895 The N.T. News 20,880 21,172 22,090 22,367 22,409 22,151 14 Se ting eumsan er irit ulput ad et la facipsustio et ad enisisA ustraliannulputpate Press tet, Council senismolor iril irit prat, quamet, www.presscouncil.org.au/snpma/index_snpma2007.html [email protected] p 14 StateState of of the the News News Print Print Media Media in in Australia Australia 20072007 a supplement to the 2006 Report

Metropolitan/national dailies Saturday Title 2007 2006 2005 2004 2003 2002 The Australian 299,500 293,966 291,752 300,360 295,168 297,158 The Financial Review 92,194 90,998 89,360 87,680 86,679 90,320 The Canberra Times 63,115 67,371 68,743 71,049 72,835 72,080 The Daily Telegraph 340,000 342,724 342,657 341,24 341,062 335,388 Sydney Morning Herald 364,000 363,901 360,323 373,750 391,678 399,455 The Age 301,000 301,000 297,500 304,200 315,250 318,900 The Herald Sun 513,000 522,400 523,500 521,000 517,650 515,598 The Courier-Mail 316,662 326,825 333,910 342,253 346,445 343,323 The Advertiser 259,807 269,695 274,364 278,385 281,117 280,490 The West Australian 356,844 372,608 380,417 381,079 384,976 385,871 The Mercury 61,985 63,554 64,297 64,905 65,194 65,308 The N.T. News 31,150 31,511 32,442 31,932 31,777 31,773

Metropolitan/national Sundays Title 2007 2006 2005 2004 2003 2002 The Canberra Times 34,674 36,892 37,844 38,877 39,161 39,075 The Sun-Herald 505,000 516,394 514,542 524,777 542,735 559,725 The Sunday Telegraph 671,500 702,125 720,030 726,153 734,021 726,906 The Sunday Age 225,000 210,000 200,000 194,500 194,500 199,350 Sunday Herald Sun 620,000 623,000 620,000 603,000 582,630 570,647 The Sunday Mail (Qld) 592,440 607,975 615,920 615,328 611,298 601,851 The Sunday Mail (SA) 318,179 324,973 330,998 334,872 340,667 345,407 The Sunday Times (WA) 336,500 347,500 354,000 354,000 352,000 346,037 The Sunday Tasmanian 60,134 61,391 61,110 59,720 59,227 58,245 The Sunday Territorian 22,340 23,386 24,811 24,535 25,422 27,083 Source: Audit Bureau of Circulations

Regional dailies

The 36 regional dailies are located in the main regional cities, such as Newcastle, and Wollongong in New South Wales, Cairns, Townsville, Gold Coast and Toowoomba in Queensland, Bendigo, Ballarat, and Geelong in Victoria and Launceston and Burnie in Tasmania. In total 13 are in NSW, 14 in Queensland, two in Tasmania, six in Victoria and one in Western Australia. Eight have Monday to Friday circulations of 25,000 or more, seven circulations of 15,000 -25,000, seven circulations of 10,000-15000 and the remaining fourteen circulations of fewer than 10,000. As reported in the State of the News Print Media in Australia 2006, the circulation of regional dailies declined by 8.3 per cent in the period 2001-2006 from the earlier figure of 646,000 to 595,000, possibly due to population decreases in rural areas. In the last year this has further declined by about 2.5 per cent to around 580,000. It is not possible to ascertain how many people buy regional dailies as their sole newspaper. There are certainly many households who take more than one paper and persons who read more than one in the course of their work.

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Community newspapers

The State of the News Print Media in Australia 2006 included data on the circulations of suburban/community newspapers. In this supplement, rather than revisiting the entire sector, the circulation and readership of Leader Newspapers in Melbourne might be taken as a representation of the trends within the sector. Looking at the figures at two-yearly intervals, the group claims an increasing circulation, while the Roy Morgan Research figures (supplemented by publishers’ claims for a small number of titles) indicates a continually growing readership. This is the mirror-image of the impact of population decline on regional daily newspapers. The suburban areas of the majority of the major capitals continue to grow and the population growth is reflected in the increased circulation and readership of the fee suburban newspapers. Another point worth noting is the relationship between circulation and readership. In metropolitan newspapers, there are about 3.5-4 readers for every copy; in suburbans that ratio drops to just 1.25.

Circulation trends in the suburban Leader newspaper group 2001-2007 Year Circulation (m.) Readership (m.)

2001 1.313 1.688 2003 1.349 1.793 2005 1.403 1.889 2007 1.576 1.937

Source: The Leader Group

Ethnic language newspapers

Over 100 ethnic newspapers are published in 35 languages mostly with circulation of around 20,000 or less with the exception of the Vietnamese daily paper whose circulation is 98,000.

Magazines

The circulation figures for Australia’s general interest magazines are hard to compare because of the rise of new titles and because of the change in 2006-2007 of the Audit Bureau’s rules (see above). For these reasons comparisons between 2006 and 2007 are difficult. The State of the News Print Media in Australia 2006 suggested that there had been a large decline in circulation in the years between 1996 and 2001 but that decline has levelled off in the years between 2001 and 2006. Taking 20 magazines considered then (one has ceased publishing – list in Appendix) sold a combined 5.2129 million in 2001 and 5.157 million in 2006. In 2007, that figure had decreased by a further 6 per cent to 4.8453 million. The figures are equally poor for the magazines aimed at news. Added together, The Bulletin, Money, Time Australia and BRW sold about 324,100 in 2001 and 267,00 in 2006. The 2007 figure for the four magazines is 249,000, a further decline of 6.7 per cent.

16 Se ting eumsan er irit ulput ad et la facipsustio et ad enisisA ustraliannulputpate Press tet, Council senismolor iril irit prat, quamet, www.presscouncil.org.au/snpma/index_snpma2007.html [email protected] p 16 StateState of of the the News News Print Print Media Media in in Australia Australia 20072007 a supplement to the 2006 Report

2.4 Websites visits The increasing traffic to newspaper websites needs to be audited if the full picture of circulation and readership is to be assessed accurately. The Press Council understands that the Audit Bureau of Circulations is likely to take on this role. Newspapers believe the figures for visits to news related websites are increasing at a fast rate. According to Neilsen/Net Ratings, Fairfax Media main news and weather site had a 27.3 per cent growth in the six months to 31 March 2007 and News Limited 26.5 per cent increase in the same period on its main site. NNR Market Intelligence Domestic publishes monthly average unique browser figures for the three months from April to June 2007 and some number from that source, together with comparisons with the same period last year are below, to indicate the growth in news website usage. Newspapers believe the figures for visits to news related websites are increasing at a fast rate and there appear to be data to support that view. According to Neilsen/Net Ratings, the Fairfax Media main news and weather site had a 27.3 per cent growth in the six months to 31 March 2007 and News Limited a 26.5 per cent increase in the same period on its main site. NNR Market Intelligence Domestic publishes monthly average unique browser* figures that are compared over three-month periods. The table below provides data, based on the number of unique browsers visiting news websites in the period April to June 2007, and compares them with the number of unique browsers visiting the same sites in the same period during the previous year. These figures indicates a substantial growth in news website usage (with figures as high as 50 per cent growth) in the period covered by this supplement.

News websites - Unique Browsers (UBs) Ave monthly UBs Ave monthly UBs Apr-Jun 2007 Apr-Jun 2006 smh.com.au 3,194,207 2,138,154 theage.com.au 2,338,443 1,544,457 brisbanetimes.com.au 405,146 N/A news.com.au 2,066,696 1,343,336 heraldsun.com.au 1,006,229 695,030 theaustralian.com.au 928,985 550,947 dailytelegraph.com.au 672,640 366,113 couriermail.com.au 432,156 264,878 National Nine News (ninemsn news) 3,578,676 2,947,233

Source: NNR Market Intelligence Domestic June 2007

Just as the readership figures have their sceptics, the apparently simple and reliable method of clocking of visits to publisher and broadcaster news sites also has its critics. The Australian Financial Review carried a front-page article on the opportunities for fraud when click visits are taken at face value, with some unscrupulous people 17 Se ting eumsan er irit ulput ad et la facipsustio et ad enisisA ustraliannulputpate Press tet, Council senismolor iril irit prat, quamet, www.presscouncil.org.au/snpma/index_snpma2007.html [email protected] p 17 StateState of of the the News News Print Print Media Media in in Australia Australia 20072007 a supplement to the 2006 Report

repeatedly visiting particular pages just to ramp up the figures. This is one of the questions that may be addressed when the Audit Bureau takes up a more formal role in assessing the numbers visiting such sites.

* A “Unique Browser” is the individual calling card of every visitor to the site. Each time a user connects to a news site it is recorded as a unique browser visit. An alternate way of counting site visits is by “Page Impressions”: the number of pages each Unique Browser looks at on a visit to the site.

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3. Media Ownership – law and impact

Sam North, Managing Editor Herald Publications

The past 12 months have seen a dramatic reshaping of the Australian media landscape, brought on by the passing of new ownership rules by the Federal Government. The major aspects of the new rules, which were unveiled in July 2006, were, according to a government press release, a relaxation of the existing restrictions on cross-media ownership subject to safeguards intended to ensure no fewer than five independent “voices’’ remained in metropolitan markets and four in regional markets; the opening up of two reserved digital channels for new digital services such as mobile television or new in-home services; legislation to retain licence conditions ensuring local content on regional television in Queensland, NSW and Victoria and extending to Tasmania; protect local radio content in regional markets by requiring commercial radio licensees seeking mergers in regional markets to meet minimum standards for local content including news, community service announcements and emergency warnings; remove the existing foreign ownership restrictions but retain the media industry as a “sensitive sector’’ under the Government’s foreign investment policy. (In September 2007, the Minister foreshadowed that some of the putative rules applying to local content on regional broadcasters might be relaxed.) The ACCC was given the brief to ensure competition laws are fully complied with under the general mergers provisions of the Trade Practices Act 1974, while the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) oversees safeguards to ensure diversity and local content, including ensuring transactions comply with the minimum number of media groups requirements. ACMA was given a range of new powers to regulate broadcasting, including power to seek civil penalties and injunctions and to accept enforceable undertakings from broadcasters. Retained were existing licence and reach limits, which provide that a person may control only one commercial television licence or two commercial radio licences in any licence area, and that a person may not control commercial television licences reaching an audience of more than 75 per cent of Australian population. On announcing the changes Communications Minister Helen Coonan denied that they would further concentrate media ownership.

“What it will do is enable some new investment, it will enable some scale and scope. I do think there is some possibility of new entrants.”

3.1 Moves in the marketplace The response from the business world was dramatic. First, PBL sold half of the Nine Network and ACP Magazines to a private equity group, CVC Asia Pacific. At the time of writing it is likely that CVC will lift its share to 75 per cent, taking the Packer name out of Australian media control for the first time in decades. 19 Se ting eumsan er irit ulput ad et la facipsustio et ad enisisA ustraliannulputpate Press tet, Council senismolor iril irit prat, quamet, www.presscouncil.org.au/snpma/index_snpma2007.html [email protected] p 19 StateState of of the the News News Print Print Media Media in in Australia Australia 20072007 a supplement to the 2006 Report

PBL bought the Newcastle television station NBN while WIN (based in Wollongong) joined the big boys by buying Channel Nine in Adelaide and Channel Nine in Perth. Kerry Stokes sold a half share in the Seven Network to another private equity group, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, and used some of the proceeds to lift Seven’s holding in West Australian Newspapers, publisher of The West Australian, to 15.01 per cent. Fairfax and Rural Press announced a friendly merger under the Fairfax Media banner, reducing the number of major proprietors by one and making the new company the publisher of six metropolitan newspapers, more than 200 regional and community newspapers, more than 30 rural titles and 18 financial publications and websites. Fairfax also launched brisbanetimes.com.au, an on-line newspaper servicing southern Queensland. Macquarie Media first purchased 13.8 per cent of Southern Cross Broadcasting and later joined with Fairfax in announcing a proposal to acquire, via a scheme of arrangement, the entire company. Under the arrangement, Fairfax will acquire the Southern Cross commercial radio stations, including Sydney’s 2UE, Melbourne’s 3AW and Magic 1278, Brisbane’s 4BC and 4BH and Perth’s 6PR and 96FM. In addition, Fairfax will gain Southern Cross’s television production and distribution businesses. Macquarie Media, which owns 87 radio stations across Australia, will get Southern Cross’s Channel Ten affiliated television stations in regional Queensland, NSW and Victoria, as well as Seven Network affiliates in Darwin and Tasmania. It will also pick up from Fairfax nine regional radio licences in South Australia and Queensland. Just how all this movement plays in the medium term is anyone’s guess. What is certain is that one major publisher – Rural Press – has disappeared while the merger that caused its disappearance seems to have removed Fairfax from the endangered species list. From being widely seen as prey, the new Fairfax is a predator. It is also a predator with a Fairfax at the helm for the first time since 1989, which augers well for future stability. However, many are concerned about the long-term intentions of the private equity groups in Seven and PBL, with fears that such pure investment entities might seek short-term exits to counteract debt levels. On the international scene, News Corporation’s takeover of Dow Jones, including acquisition of The Wall Street Journal, caused enormous excitement, with fears expressed for the paper’s editorial independence.

20 Se ting eumsan er irit ulput ad et la facipsustio et ad enisisA ustraliannulputpate Press tet, Council senismolor iril irit prat, quamet, www.presscouncil.org.au/snpma/index_snpma2007.html [email protected] p 20 StateState of of the the News News Print Print Media Media in in Australia Australia 20072007 a supplement to the 2006 Report

4. Convergence

4.1 On-line News 2007

Margaret Van Heekeren, Associate Lecturer Charles Sturt University

The embrace of on-line news by newspaper publishers and consumers over the past year has become so great the sites can no longer be considered ‘new media’ but are now firmly part of the mainstream. Publishers now consider on-line sites as significant parts of their core news business. The word “cannibalisation”, once spoken in fearful tones in nearly all discussions about the likely impact of Internet news on newspapers, is no longer heard. Whereas last year we reported that outside of Sydney and Melbourne the pace of on-line news development had been slow, the big changes over the past 12 months have happened outside these centres. The strength of the on-line news market was best demonstrated in Brisbane in March, when Fairfax Media launched brisbanetimes.com.au. Not only was this the first mainstream metropolitan news publication in 20 years but more significantly, it was Internet only. The venture has highlighted the economics of on-line compared to newspaper publishing. The site was set up with just fourteen journalists. The only hard copy daily in Brisbane, the Courier Mail, published by News Ltd, has a staff of more than 300. Described by Fairfax CEO, David Kirk, in April as “an unprecedented success”, by May brisbanetimes.com.au was attracting 339,828 unique browsers (readers) a month. Comparably, in the first quarter of 2007 the incumbent newspaper site couriermail. com.au attracted 350,355 unique readers a month. The site’s success is likely to persuade Fairfax Digital towards similar ventures elsewhere, with Perth tipped as the next market. Perth currently has one newspaper website, linked to its sole daily, the West Australian, published by West Australian Newspapers (WAN). Relaunched in October 2006, thewest.com.au, with its greater access to news reports than its predecessor, has seen a strong rise in site traffic, with around 440,000 unique browsers a month by mid-2007. WAN’s next move in the on- line market is the gradual rollout of sites for its regional newspapers. Meanwhile, elsewhere in the regions the availability of local news through newspaper affiliate sites has increased over the past year. In all states and the Australian Capital Territory the yourguide.com.au sites, now absorbed into the Fairfax group following the Rural Press merger, have increased content offerings with all sites offering full news reports. Twelve months ago the yourguide sites varied from offering full story content on some newspaper sites to first paragraphs only on others. Australian Provincial News and Media (APN), which has significant press holdings in Queensland and northern New South Wales, is also increasing its on-line investment. Mid-year the company relaunched its Sunshine Coast Daily site with the improved site

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expected to increase visitation. Similarly, suburban newspaper readers are also benefiting from the further consolidation of on-line news into the mainstream with most suburban titles also now featuring full stories. However, on-line newspaper affiliate sites in the regions and suburbs still trail their capital city counterparts. Sites are hard copy issue driven with web updates tied to publication regimes. These sites are still very much newspapers on the web and lack the multi-media dynamism of the national and capital city newspaper sites with their 24-hour news cycles, audio, video and RSS options. As all sites increase in sophistication news audiences are turning to newspaper sites for information in ever-increasing numbers. In August Fairfax Digital claimed victory for its smh.com.au website when July figures showed it had outstripped ninemsn’s National Nine News site for visits, making the newspaper site the number one in Australia for news information. Nine disputed the Fairfax claim, supported by market researcher NielsenNet Ratings, arguing the newspaper company had manipulated figures and the smh.com.au was 67 unique visitors a day behind. But with such a small difference, and an upward trajectory of on-line newspaper site readership, it is evident newspaper sites are now an essential, rather than optional, part of the news consumer’s daily media diet. Australian results of a worldwide media use survey undertaken in May found on- line is the second preferred source of news in this country. TV news was identified by 35 per cent of respondents as their main source of news and information, 18 per cent named on-line, placing it marginally ahead of radio (17 per cent), major daily newspapers (12 per cent) and national daily newspapers (5 per cent). The on-line preference over radio and newspapers is reflected in quarterly results to March 2007. These show big increases in usage of sites affiliated to major Australian papers. The biggest increase was for the Sydney Daily Telegraph site, which drew 77.9 per cent more people than the previous quarter to 579,169. The Australian site surged 56.2 per cent to 820,337 whilst smh.com.au picked up a 29.3 per cent increase to 2.657,014. The Melbourne-based sites for the Age and Herald Sun, enjoyed similar increases of 27.1 per cent (1,904,711 visitors) and 26.3 per cent (755,801) respectively. Brisbane’s Courier Mail site, which have we have seen is now rivalled by brisbanetimes.com.au, lifted 24 per cent to 350,355. While the latest quarterly figures were not available at the time of writing, there is no question the upward trajectory has continued throughout the year. With readers come advertisers and, in February, the Audit Bureau of Verification Services announced the on-line advertising market had reached the $1 billion mark by

22 Se ting eumsan er irit ulput ad et la facipsustio et ad enisisA ustraliannulputpate Press tet, Council senismolor iril irit prat, quamet, www.presscouncil.org.au/snpma/index_snpma2007.html [email protected] p 22 StateState of of the the News News Print Print Media Media in in Australia Australia 20072007 a supplement to the 2006 Report

the end of 2006. All major publishers have significant stakes in the on-line advertising market through real estate, motor, employment and other classified and directory sites. The strength of this sector further entrenches newspaper proprietors in the market. Publishers also need Internet advertising revenue to support the free information content of news sites. After the West Australian abandoned its former pay-for-view strategy for some on-line content the Australian Financial Review through afr.com.au is now the only newspaper-affiliated news site that charges for new content. However, with Newscorp’s recent acquisition of the Wall Street Journal there is the possibility of affiliated News sites introducing payment for financial news. (See editor’s note below.) Through on-line readership and advertising growth the blend between hard copy and on-line news is intensifying. The extent to which the traditional and cyber news forms can mesh will be seen in 2008 as Fairfax furthers its “Newsroom of the Future” concept, and News Limited move towards an integrated newsroom. The concept, announced in April, will see print and on-line staff working brought together in the one newsroom. Editorial decisions will be made with cross-platform considerations of print, Internet and mobile phone delivery including greater emphasis on video material. News Ltd, which introduced 24-hour newsrooms in the latter part of 2006, is at this point still watching such local and overseas digital/print newsroom developments closely before making further changes. [Editor’s note: Separate reports from Fairfax/The Age and from News Limited are published in this section of the Supplement.] And News, like all other publishers, is keeping a very watchful eye on the still marginal but unpredictable social media sector. [Editor’s note: Following the purchase of the Wall Street Journal, Rupert Murdoch has suggested that the site’s contents will soon be made available at no cost; on 22 September it was reported that the afr.com.au site would be relaunched “in a few weeks” and there was speculation that its contents would, at that time, be made available free.]

4.2 Where are newsrooms going? - An Age perspective

Steve Foley, Deputy Editor (Development and Production), The Age

This is an intoxicating time to be a journalist. Media businesses around the world are racing to secure their futures as digital technology transforms the way people consume news and information. In this new marketplace, high-value journalism is becoming the new ‘rivers of gold’. Those organisations determined to survive are combining traditional news-gathering with the speed, reach and innovative functions of the web. Journalists recognise this new reality. Where once there was suspicion now there is an acceptance the Internet can be journalism’s saviour. The web is enabling a more

23 Se ting eumsan er irit ulput ad et la facipsustio et ad enisisA ustraliannulputpate Press tet, Council senismolor iril irit prat, quamet, www.presscouncil.org.au/snpma/index_snpma2007.html [email protected] p 23 StateState of of the the News News Print Print Media Media in in Australia Australia 20072007 a supplement to the 2006 Report

enhanced form of storytelling that allows journalists to add vision, audio, slideshows, document trails – and still write with depth, authority and, most tellingly, to infinitely more readers. Like most phenomena this trend has acquired a name: Newsroom of the Future. As my Fairfax colleagues and I quickly found during a study tour of the world’s leading integrated sites, there’s no blueprint or ‘how to’ manual – no sure-fire formula for making a ‘newsroom of the future’ succeed. So rapid is the transition that already the terminology itself is questioned. ‘Future’ is passé; newsroom integration is happening ‘now’. Then again, there are those who say it may already be too late. Since Fairfax Media CEO David Kirk outlined his vision for a fully integrated digital media publishing business in April this year, newsroom convergence has accelerated across the company’s two biggest sites in Sydney and Melbourne. Increasing numbers of Fairfax print reporters send breaking news to the web. Many staffers blog. Canberra veterans like Michelle Grattan file audio commentary on the day’s big political news while Age commentators Shaun Carney and Malcolm Maiden regularly do videocasts. In newsrooms accustomed to morning newspaper deadlines, speed has become the new mantra. Recognition that news is now an on-demand commodity is transforming work practices and a few old shibboleths – such as releasing exclusive material hours before the paper goes to press. Daily, if not hourly, these convention-busting decisions are being made between reporters and news editors – if the scoop is deemed “perishable” it’s posted to the web. The Age’s recent coverage of the conviction of serial killer Peter Dupas was a textbook illustration of the integrated newsdesk in action. The Age story was live on the website just a minute after online reporter Dan Harrison sent a text message confirming the verdict at 3.47pm – ahead of on-line competitors, radio and TV and the wires. Chief court reporter Peter Gregory then filed in more detail when the judge had finished. Both Gregory and Harrison continued to file updates, including reaction from family and the police involved in the investigation. Photographers contributed images soon after and Viki Lascaris produced a photo gallery to run with the growing coverage. John Silvester’s multi-media report of the case – including his dramatic interview with the prosecution’s star witness, former lawyer Andrew Fraser, was also live within minutes of the verdict. Significantly, much of the momentum is happening by osmosis. Perhaps that old- fashioned journalistic instinct that took newspapers to their zenith has, like the industry, moved with the times after all.

24 Se ting eumsan er irit ulput ad et la facipsustio et ad enisisA ustraliannulputpate Press tet, Council senismolor iril irit prat, quamet, www.presscouncil.org.au/snpma/index_snpma2007.html [email protected] p 24 StateState of of the the News News Print Print Media Media in in Australia Australia 20072007 a supplement to the 2006 Report

4.3 Where are newsrooms going? - A News Limited view

Campbell Reid, Editorial Operations Director News Limited

For the first time since the invention of the printing press the answer to the question “What is a newspaper?” is no longer straight-forward. Of course a newspaper is news printed on paper – but is that all? What about a masthead website? Is that something the professionals who produce print editions do on the side? Are websites journalism’s equivalent of the hobby farm? Or is a newspaper a relationship? A contract, if you like, between a source of information and an audience that trusts and understand its values, credibility and reputation. These are the issues newspaper companies are wrestling with under the new industry buzzwords of convergence and integration. At News Limited we, like other publishers, have seen our masthead website traffic surge dramatically in the last 12 months and sites that used to just tick over with a diet of loosely re-packaged stories from the print edition are now centres of creativity, breaking news stories and people pushing their talent into unexplored territory of video, animated cartoons, interactive graphics and gloriously renegade content. Examples of integration within News Limited newsrooms around the country vary from the individual with reporters themselves taking the lead to the structural with the formation of integration teams at some divisions. Reporters like Di Butler at the Courier-Mail in Brisbane, Joe Hilderbrand at The Daily Telegraph and Malcolm Farr and Sid Marris for The Telegraph and The Australian respectively in Canberra are examples of print journalists who have taken the initiative in adding video reporting to the suite of skills with spectacular results. At The Geelong Advertiser editor Peter Judd is experimenting with a home-built “hub and spoke” newsroom layout and at The Daily Telegraph in Sydney five teams have been established to examine aspects of integration ranging from workflows, newsdesk duties, production efficiencies, training and systems and equipment. This project includes having reporters road-test the latest PDAs and laptops. In my role as Editorial Operations Director, I am also charged with investigating the same issues from a corporate perspective and I am in the process of putting together project teams to guide the move to integration. As others in the newspaper industry have observed key challenges of the integration puzzle is how to move to the new environment without simply adding extra staff and what are the best multi-platform publishing systems News Limited, like most newspaper companies, has a large group of people publishing

25 Se ting eumsan er irit ulput ad et la facipsustio et ad enisisA ustraliannulputpate Press tet, Council senismolor iril irit prat, quamet, www.presscouncil.org.au/snpma/index_snpma2007.html [email protected] p 25 StateState of of the the News News Print Print Media Media in in Australia Australia 20072007 a supplement to the 2006 Report

printed papers and a small group of people publishing websites. Integration is when all the creative effort of journalists, photographers, editors and artists is structured to deliver news onto whatever platform needs it now. This changes fundamentally the answer to the original question, “What is a newspaper?” A newspaper is a source of information. The key is the news. The paper is now just one of the ways that news is delivered to the audience. In some parts of the industry the catch cry is “Don’t think newspaper, think newsbrand”. For News the starting point for convergence is the question “What does the audience want and when does it want it?” From there we are working towards structuring our work practices, hours of operation, staff positions and responsibilities to meet the audience expectation for news when they want it and how they want it. This means a fundamental re-examination of everything we do. Organically, throughout the News group, we are at various stages of that process. Questions such as “When should the editor start work?” to “Where does the website news editor sit?” are being tossed about and argued over along with the issues of managing cultural change, newsroom architecture and the best equipment for reporters, photographers and artists. All of this represents massive change and a question that has to be asked is “Why bother?” Isn’t it enough to simply bolt a website on to the side and keep things running pretty much like they always have? Well, no. The explosion of on-line and mobile news opportunities represents a new adventure for journalism and death by irrelevancy awaits those unwilling to make the journey. The resources newspapers need to deliver all-day-every-day journalism of the quality our mastheads demand can only practically come from changing the way we operate. The “bolt-the-website-on-the-side-and-don’t-bother-me-about-it” concept is creatively bankrupt and economically unsustainable. Journalism is about telling the world about change and now journalism itself is changing. From once a day to all day and from paper to every platform we can think of. So what’s a newspaper? Anything you want it to be.

26 Se ting eumsan er irit ulput ad et la facipsustio et ad enisisA ustraliannulputpate Press tet, Council senismolor iril irit prat, quamet, www.presscouncil.org.au/snpma/index_snpma2007.html [email protected] p 26 StateState of of the the News News Print Print Media Media in in Australia Australia 20072007 a supplement to the 2006 Report

5. Contemporary issues in the Australian press

5.1 Blogging in Australian metropolitan dailies

Lindsay Simpson, Lecturer James Cook University

The phenomenon of blogging has become popular to such an extent that metropolitan newspapers now allow or require some of their mainstream journalists, as well as others, to produce blogs associated with the newspaper website. But hard data are not easily acquired. Due to a poor response to a questionnaire that was circulated to all 12 metropolitan and national dailies in August, this study is based on accessing the relevant on-line sites on the same day, 16 September 2007. The purpose was to ascertain the number of blogs on the newspapers’ on-line sites and the presence of terms and conditions governing the bloggers’ behaviour. Newspapers tend to feature columnists, usually from their own staff, as bloggers. Some sought readers’ participation in blogs through offering prizes and other incentives. Some of the blogs were the same across different newspapers as News Limited shared the content. Although the date of the inception of the blogs on the newspaper site is unclear due to the poor response to the survey, the two newspaper editors who did respond stated the blogs began in 2005 and 2006. The newspapers with the highest circulation predictably had more response ‘comments’ on their blog sites although the actual number of comments is impossible to gauge without input from individual on-line editors to the questionnaire. Both respondents indicated that they monitored the readership although they did not have precise figures as to the number of posts on all blogs. Terms and conditions varied across all blogs, with Fairfax newspapers (The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald) specifying terms and conditions on the blog page. Other blogs had terms and conditions off their home page.

Blogging developmental processes

The two on-line editors who did complete the survey: John McDonald, The Herald Sun, and John Grey from the Courier-Mail provided illustrative information about developments.. The Herald Sun blogsite began in 2006 and has around ten blogs on its site. It monitors readership through Nielsen Net Ratings. The columnist Andrew Bolt attracts more than 30 per cent of blog traffic across all News Limited sites. John McDonald stated that the content of the newspaper had not changed since the advent of blogs on-line but that relevant articles often carried pointers to the blogs. He said that about 75 per cent of bloggers were staff journalists. Although he did not believe any of the blogs had broken news, he stated: “the potential is there for exactly that.” He believed blogs should address major topics (eg migration and terrorism).

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Mr McDonald said that every blog was moderated (edited) and “anything that carries the slightest risk of defamation or contempt (or breaking laws such as racial vilification) is not published.” He did say, though, that The Herald Sun did not have a contractual process in place between the newspaper and bloggers, even though the newspaper could be held legally responsible for bloggers’ comments. Fortunately the newspaper had not faced any legal proceedings arising out of bloggers’ comments but it had received a warning that a comment on the blog could be in breach of the Racial Vilification Act. Mr McDonald believed that the blogosphere contributed to growing The Herald Sun’s readership “by promoting the brand among a readership that might otherwise not read newspapers”. John Grey from the Courier-Mail said that blogs were first placed on-line for the newspaper in 2005 and now numbered around a dozen The Brisbane Courier-Mail has 16 blogs listed, mostly columnist based and some inviting readers to comment on issues such as “have your say on speed cameras, road works, petrol prices, tailgaters, Volvo drivers ... anything to do with modern motoring”. The Nielsen Site Census, HBX and reader responses were used to assess readership of the blogs. Although the newspaper had not totalled the number of comments posted overall, one blog had 7500 comments since April 2006. The blogs that most attracted comments have been: “Specific and serious issues, followed by sexy video blogger”. The most popular blogs ranged over opinion, news celebrity and leisure. He said about 15-20 bloggers were staffers. Some blogs had broken news, particularly in the entertainment section and on local issues. Major public issues elicited a large number of responses. Also the newspaper promoted more in-depth discussions by inviting comments on particular topics. He said staff bloggers edited their own comments but, as the newspaper could be held responsible for bloggers’ comments, terms and conditions were imposed on the contributions of external contract bloggers.

Other metropolitan newspapers

The news.com.au site, publisher of six of the metropolitan daily newspapers (including the Herald Sun and the Courier-Mail), as well as the Sunday Times in Perth and the national daily, The Australian, listed 41 blogs varying from columnists to home help on its website. Most blogs in on-line newspaper sites were accessed from the homepage, sometimes through the ‘opinion’ gateway. It was not always clear from the blog sites that terms and conditions apply to comments posted although News Limited sites include a standard News Digital Media Pty Ltd statement with a clause which reads: ‘Users will not use this site for any purpose or in any way which is unlawful’, but this statement was usually not on the actual blog page. The Australian’s blog page offered 16 columnists’ blogs, predominantly on political commentary. Phillip Adams had the most comments with 433 comments on an article entitled Labor turns its back on a true giant. Other less politically focused blogger columnists for The Australian included Ruth Ostrow, whose subjects were more

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lifestyle-oriented such as When teens are the targets and Cabbie on the Wrong Track. The top ten articles in the past seven days (from the date of the survey) related to a piece entitled An Epic Day, which was about Prime Minister John Howard’s decision on whether to stand down, which had more than 400 comments. The Sydney Morning Herald, published by Fairfax Media, had ten blogs focused on various subjects such as news, sport, home and garden and entertainment, and featuring columnist bloggers. Among the staffers, were a cartoonist, Rocco Fazarri, whose blog took readers ‘behind his illustrations and into the newsroom’. Others included a focus on Australia’s migrant mix, a blog from the Freedom of Information editor and a slideshow from the newspapers’ photographers. A travel blog entitled Backpacker featured the Herald’s resident globetrotter on a shoe-string, Ben Groundwater, who finds the cheap, and the nasty, in the world’s best backpacking destinations. The Life and Leisure supplement included All Men are Liars, a blog on the issues affecting men. The entertainment blog encouraged reviews from readers but, on the day surveyed, there were virtually no comments posted. The Age, also published by Fairfax Media, had 22 blogs including Space Hogs on Home renovation and happy pills and Are anti-depressants killing happiness and love? Other blogs included religious topics, movies and gardening. The Age, like The Sydney Morning Herald had clear terms and conditions specifically for bloggers posted on the blogging site, which included retaining “the right and discretion (but not the obligation) to edit, delete, reject or remove any comment which you post or seek to post in the comments areas”. News Limited’s Daily Telegraph had 30 blogs, including columnist Piers Akerman and other more topical blogs such as Australian Idol and Daily Big Brother recaps, as well as fashion, a motoring blog and sex and health. The West Australian incited readers to ‘get even with our writers’ with direct blog links off the on-line homepage. The newspaper has seven different types of blogs, including Susan Hewitt on parenting, Melissa Ken, The London Muse, and Mark Naglazas on celebrities. The most comments the week of the survey was in response to Griffin Longley (24 comments) on ‘being a bloke’. The Canberra Times’ blog site (another published by Fairfax, following its merger with Rural Press) was predominantly written by staffer Brenda Cunningham-Lewis across a range of topics in the news, ranging from the disappearance of Maddie McCann to the horse flu epidemic. It also encouraged readers to post comments, “Here is the place for you to vent on any national or world news and lifestyle stories on the yourguide websites. If there is anything you see or hear that you like or don’t like, tell us. Don’t keep it to yourself!” The blog with the most comments was a story entitled APEC ANTICS: Should the Chaser boys pull their heads in?, with 40 comments posted. Those who wished to participate on The Canberra Times blog had to register and join a free site, which provides subscribers with promotional offers, but there were no clearly marked terms and conditions posted. The insulting posting, “Celtic crap. Line

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yourself up against me, and you will become fish bait! You contaminated turd! Your accusation of fascism echoes of your very own threat! You should be incarcerated, or deported, whichever is the most expedient!”, drew only a mild response from the on- line editor, who confined his response to: “Please stay on topic”. The Advertiser (News Limited’s Adelaide newspaper) has six blogs listed. It urges participation through encouraging readers to “Have Your Shout on us”, giving out prizes, including a carton of beer and sports tickets to participants. Most of the other blogs focused on sport topics. No blog site could be detected on The Australian Financial Review on-line site (which is largely available only to subscribers) or The Northern Territory News. The Mercury in Hobart had a blank page on its blog site on the day of the survey, although it does encourage on-line feedback to posted “opinion” articles.

Conclusion

Blogs are increasingly being used in mainstream newspapers to engage directly with readers, who are also invited to participate in the process of providing opinion as well as news. CyberJournalist, the most comprehensive list of blogs produced by journalists in the US, has noted 240 sites in their J-Blogs Index of blogs published by news sites (http://wiki.cyberjournalist.net/jblogs-ongoing). Blogs also provide a voice for staff journalists who canvass different topics to those they might address in their usual reporting mode. The method of policing, legally or ethically, damaging comments is still being addressed with the legal situation being largely untested as far as publishing response comments to blogs.

5.2 Self-regulation of on-line news

Jack Herman, Executive Secretary Australian Press Council

The Australian Press Council has decided that, if there are any websites willing to come within its remit, the Council is prepared to take responsibility for the self- regulation of news websites, in the same way as it does for the periodical press. Currently, the Council has dual roles as the self-regulatory body of the Australian print media: it seeks to maintain a free press, by opposing moves that would restrict the ability of the press to inform the public on matters of public interest and concern; and it seeks to ensure that the press is both free and responsible by dealing with complaints from the public about the ethical behaviour of newspapers and magazines (and their publishers’ websites). Complaints are made under the Council’s Statement of Principles, which can be found on its website, www.presscouncil.org.au/pcsite/ complaints/sop.html. The Council has decided that those principles will apply to participating news websites in the same way as they do to reporting in newspapers and magazines.

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Additionally, the Council administers the Privacy Standards for the Print Media, which allow those media organisations that publicly subscribe to the standards to claim an exemption from the ambit of the federal Privacy Act for their journalistic activities. Those privacy standards will apply as readily to media organisations that publish on the Internet as they do to those media organisations that publish in print. Complaints about possible breaches of the privacy standards should be made to the Press Council in the same way as complaints about alleged breaches of the Principles. The Privacy Standards for the Print Media can also be found on the Council’s website (www.presscouncil.org.au/pcsite/complaints/priv_stand.html.) Until now there has been no means of regulating the news content of Internet sites. The Australian Communications and Media Authority believes that its main role is licensing and regulating the broadcast media and, except in cases where there may be offensive material posted, does not see itself as having a role in regulating the web. However, just as the print media faced the possibility in 1975 of government regulation of the press, so the publishers of Internet news sites have the prospect that a government may determine to impose a regulatory regime. After consultation the Press Council came to the conclusion that the solution found by the publishers and journalists in 1975-76, the establishment of an industry-based self-regulatory mechanism, is preferable to government regulation. Accordingly, because the news sites of its member publishers already come within the Council jurisdiction, it decided to offer other publishers of news sites the opportunity to affiliate with the Council. Council membership offers affiliation within the framework of a set of principles and practices that have developed over thirty years of operation within the relatively free environment of the Australian press. And it offers a Council, comprised of representatives of the publishers, of journalists and of members of the public, convened by an independent Chairman, to administer those principles and practices. Membership will entail use by the web-site of the Press Council logo as a way of saying publicly, “We abide by this set of standards in our reporting, and commenting on, the news”. Another advantage for readers of member web-sites is the assurance that they can come to the Council and get assistance in ensuring that any inaccuracy or misrepresentation is corrected or balance provided. The Council is having further discussions about membership with a number of publishers reporting news solely on the Internet. While the basic principles of extension of membership have been determined, other details of the rights and responsibilities of membership for stand-alone news sites are still being discussed.

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5.3 Issues in press ethics

Jack Herman, Executive Secretary, Australian Press Council

Ethical issues for journalists and publications have come to the fore again over the last year. Among these issues, the necessity for the application of Press Council principles to blog sites that purport to offer accurate, balanced and fair news reports has been the subject of much debate on the Council. There is nothing new in the questions around handling the increasing prevalence of ‘spin’ of questionable provenance foisted on newspapers by all parties, including government spokespersons seeking advantage in the reporting of sensitive issues, but in the past year these issues have been relevant to a number of breaking stories. The handling of ostensibly off-the-record journalist briefings became an issue when some journalists questioned the Treasurer’s account of a dinner. And a television report on footballers’ medical records brought into focus the adequacy of privacy rights especially the personal health information of sports celebrities. With the exception of the need for rules covering news blog sites, complex newspaper ethical dilemmas are not new, although the examples reported herein illustrate the importance interested parties attach to manipulation of the news. It is the Press Council’s role to try encourage ethical reporting by all parties. As the issues raised in this section show, it is not always easy to determine what is the ethically correct path.

Blogs

Newspapers have long supplemented their reporting of news with tightly edited commentary upon that news. On newspaper websites, however, there is virtually unlimited space for commentary and opinion. Many traditional columnists (and a number of others, many not journalists) now write web logs (blogs), regular (sometimes daily) columns on websites, and invite readers to submit instant feedback that is posted as comments on the blog. Until recently many of these comments were not moderated. They were posted straight to the website without any of the careful editing that letters to the editor including those of readers, received. Newspapers became especially aware of web-site problems when readers lodged complaints about what they had read on particular blogs. Most newspaper have had to react to the likelihood of some of the posted material being inappropriate or against the law by appointing in-house moderators/editors to assess material intended for posting on blog pages, either not posting offensive ones or removing them as soon as they become aware of them. The Press Council has expanded its coverage to deal with complaints against blogged material on member web-sites, and any solely on-line sites that purport to report the news in the same way as newspapers do. It has introduced the following steps for dealing with websites complaints. The details reflect the reality that blogs and responses to them cannot be handled in ways exactly analogous to ordinary complaints or letters pages:

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• The Council will notify the relevant member-website immediately it receives a complaint. • The website publisher is advised that a complaint has been accepted and has the option of removing the item, affixing an indicator on the item to the effect that it is disputed, or taking no action pending processing of the complaint if it is accepted by the Council. • The complaint, if accepted, is then processed according to usual procedures. • Any action taken by the website upon notification of the complaint can be taken into account if the Council adjudicates the complaint. The Council has also considered and is consulting members about the desirability of introducing a web-site Code of Conduct that would govern web-site surveillance as is being found very desirable internationally. The Code will encourage the adoption of this guidance Code intended to apply to contributors and those responsible for news media web-sites. They concern such blog-related matters as: • Be courteous • Give accurate information in the spirit of being helpful • Respectfully disagree • Use the correct venue for your post • Admit the possibility of fault and respect different points of view • If you mess-up take responsibility for your actions

Spin/sources

The Haneef case on the Gold Coast brought into relief the pervasiveness of spin and the problems of dealing with it in the daily round, especially ‘official’ spin. The Australian’s Hedley Thomas discussed the problems associated with this notorious case in the Walkley magazine. Briefly, the matter started with Mohammed Haneef, a doctor, who was not an Australian citizen but was working in a Gold Coast hospital under a temporary working visa. Dr Haneef was detained on suspicion of involvement in terrorist activities in the UK. The stated basis of the arrest was that he had given a partly used mobile telephone SIM card to a relation in the UK. That person had been implicated in the attacks in London and Glasgow. After the arrest of the doctor, government ministers (state and federal) as well as the police were quick to release information about the cause of the arrest. As it turned out subsequently, some of the information released was misleading. Many journalists initially had to rely upon that official information and related ‘off-the- record’ briefings. It was many days before the information from those sources could be tested - by the leaking from the defence lawyers of the transcript of the police interview with Dr Haneef.

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When Dr Haneef finally appeared in court, the magistrate found the evidence in support of the government’s case so uncompelling that bail was granted. That did not stop the leaking of further information from official sources of prejudicial material, this time allegedly intercepted from an on-line chat room which then caused Hedley Thomas to raise serious questions about sources and journalists’ relations both publicly and with the officials responsible for the leaks. The Haneef case is far from the only case where journalists have relied on ‘unverifiable’ information from official sources, apparently not expecting to be accountable. For instance, during the year the Press Council has had to adjudicate a complaint from the Office of the Governor-General. The story was allegedly given to the journalist from senior sources within a state government. How can any adjudication be fair, since confidential sources are important components of real news but leave the person affected in a near indefensible position? The Council has defended the protection of sources in court cases, but it does acknowledge that there can be important imbalances between the power of the newspaper and that of the person without means of defence, who are the subject of apparently unsubstantiated newspaper reports. Since more journalists seem to be tempted to forsake the role of informed and scrupulous observer in favour of becoming players of influence, this is a real problem. In this case, the Council sought and received assurances from the highest office holder in the news organisation concerning the status and reliability of the sources, which helped it determine the issue. It is, however, an issue requiring more thought and stronger evidence than the blithe assurances of individual journalists. Of course, the most obvious and continuing example of the sources problem concerned the speculation throughout 2007 about the Liberal Party leadership. The unnamed sources who are responsible for most of it have undoubtedly been placing their own spin on the information which seemingly is the price journalists accept in return for a continuing supply. A rather Faustian pact! The federal government’s attitude to the use of spin has been noticeably amoral, demonstrating a serious lack of consistency and integrity. Three contrasting cases illustrate the point. • The conviction and sentencing of two Melbourne journalists, Michael Harvey and Gerard McManus, for refusing to name the sources for a 2004 article in the Herald Sun about the reneging on government policy promises illustrates the potential for journalists to suffer from government retribution. The Attorney- General belatedly made futile sympathetic noises even though a Commonwealth Prosecutor had initiated the action • Similarly there were police raids on The Australian as part of the government’s attempts to discover the identity of sources for newspaper reports emanating from whistle-blowers who made known serious security deficiencies in Australian Customs practices at Sydney Airport. The Public Service official who allegedly leaked the information was charged using other information and found guilty. The interesting point is that neither time nor money was allowed

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to limit the search for sources. The government spent over $2 million and 21,000 hours of police time over four years, including the newspaper searches, trying to track down the identity of the sources. • In contrast, security-sensitive Office of National Assessment material leaked to commentator Andrew Bolt and used to bolster the government point of view did not lead to any discernable effort or expense to discover the source, even though it was alleged by an ALP senator that the source was an official working in the office of the Minister for Foreign Affairs. The contrast is remarkable as the security breach was at least of the same or greater import than the claim reported in the previous paragraph of weaknesses in Australian Customs practices. The Press Council is considering its role further. On the one hand, without unnamed sources much real news, and often the truth about events, will not be ascertained. On the other hand over-reliance on such sources, where there is no demonstrable need, is slipshod journalism. Even where reliance seems justified there ought to be double checking at the most senior level within the newspaper before publication. Special care to avoid being hostage to deliberate spin should be the stock-in-trade of journalists, especially political journalists and even more especially journalists on the front line near election times. Adherence to ethical responses will largely determine the standing of journalism long-term. International newspapers such as The Washington Post apparently have much tougher requirements for multiple sources and validation of information than are customarily applied in Australia. How high standards of journalistic ethics can best be achieved and where necessary, confirmed, remains an important agenda item for the Press Council. It will continue to examine questions of journalistic ethics in its quest for an optimally free and responsible press in Australia.

Off the record

A similarly sensitive ethical question arises from ‘off-the-record’ and background briefings. A 2005 dinner attended by the Treasurer and three journalists raises questions about when, if ever, off-the-record or background material might come onto the record. The claim is that an undertaking was given, even if post facto, that the dinner conversation was ‘off the record’. Two years later, in response to the Treasurer’s strong statements denying reports of what was said at the dinner, the journalists revealed their own recollections of what was said. If an informant at an off-the-record meeting later himself misrepresents what was said, is any undertaking to keep the dinner off the record still valid for the others present? Does a journalist’s obligation to a confidential source continue after the time that the journalist discovers that the source has been deliberately misleading or has planted a story with the sole aim of harming another? There have been many reactions to the case by Australian journalists. The majority view seems to have been that such confidences should have been maintained. The Press Council’s view is that this is another aspect of spin, which journalists above

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all should have the training and will to resist. Journalists are too easily conned when they take the simple expedient of being ‘on the drip’ as a substitute for the sort of leg-work that obtains the information from verifiable, quotable sources. Reliance on unattributable leaks and background briefings should not be countenanced as the routine approach to information gathering. When there are complaints, the Press Council will seek to ascertain the authenticity of information and confirmatory sources used in reports. Australian journalists would do well to have fabricated especially long spoons for any suppers they share.

AFL drug case

The revelation by a television station of the identity of the football club of two players who had tested positively twice for the use of recreational drugs raised several interesting ethical questions. The source of the story was a clinic’s medical records allegedly found in the street near the clinic and sold to the television station. A central issue is the right of individuals to privacy of their health records, even for very high profile footballers in the face of allegations concerning drug use in a club. In fact police found and charged those responsible for finding and on-selling the records. It is also possible that the journalist and the station will be charged, indicating that current law is sufficient to protect the privacy of the medical records of the individuals (whose names have not been broadcast). It is really a case of egregious chequebook journalism. Should a publisher or broadcaster pay for information when it involves the use of material of doubtful provenance and invasion of the privacy of individuals? The Press Council considered this question in 1992 (in Adjudication 566 found at http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/other/ APC/1992/36.html), when a regional daily published material from confidential papers allegedly found in the street and passed along to the newspapers. It standing position is:

The Press Council believes the Advertiser was justified in reporting that confidential and sensitive material relating to an issue of considerable local interest, and allegedly stolen, had been found in a car park. It was right to publish [the complainant’s] criticisms of its actions. It showed restraint, and prudence, in choosing not to report the more sensitive information in the documents. The issue is whether it should have revealed information extracted from the documents.

The Press Council does not accept the newspaper’s contention that the manner in which the documents were obtained was irrelevant. The source of information, particularly if it involves an alleged criminal offence, is clearly a matter a newspaper must take into account in deciding whether to print it.

The basic question is whether the printed report added so significantly to public knowledge on what was certainly an issue of public interest that such ethical and privacy considerations were

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outweighed. On balance, the Council believes it did not. In the Lenah Game Meats case, the High Court considered similar questions and decided that, in that case, involving film taken of a possum abattoir in Tasmania, the public interest argument prevailed and the ABC (which had not been involved in the illegal activities associated with the filming) could air the material. In the end, these and other ethical questions come back to the issue of whether there is a clear public interest in the release of the information and whether the broadcaster or publisher is satisfied that the manner by which the information was obtained does not compromise its integrity.

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6. Content: Is election reporting biased?

Jack Herman, Executive Secretary Australian Press Council 6.1 Introduction The question of whether press coverage of elections is biased or fair and balanced is a perennial one for the Press Council. There have been allegations against several newspapers, one of which (Adjudication Nos 74 and 75) contributed to the decision of News Limited in the early 1980s to suspend its membership of the Council for six years. In the 1970s and 1980s, the allegations of bias emerged largely from the left but, in the past 15 years, allegations of bias have been just as likely to emerge from the right. In fact, during one recent federal election, within ten days, accusations of bias were levelled at the same newspaper first by a partisan of the ALP, then by the Liberals and, finally, by the Australian Democrats. The Council has raised with academics during research meetings the possibility of obtaining more evidence on this question of bias in election coverage. In 2006, it decided to sponsor research on the reporting in one newspaper in each state of the three state elections to be held in late 2006 and early 2007. Two of the studies were of the Courier-Mail’s coverage of the 2006 Queensland election and The Age’s reporting of the 2006 Victorian elections. The proposed study of coverage of the 2007 NSW election in The Australian is not yet complete. Reports on the research, conducted by Harry Dillon of Charles Sturt University (the Queensland election) and Associate Professor Ian Richards at University of South Australia (the Victorian election) are published in this section of the Supplement. Harry Dillon explains the methodology used in the Queensland report. It was adapted from a method pioneered in election studies at Canada’s McGill University’s Institute for the Study of Canada and used in reports such as its analysis of the 2006 Canadian federal elections (http://media-observatory.mcgill.ca/pages/2006election.html).

Findings

Both researchers are unequivocal in their conclusion that, in terms of coverage, balance, and fairness, in neither the tabloid nor the broadsheet did they find any evidence of systematic bias towards one political party. The conclusion from the Victorian report is representative of both studies. “As a result, regular readers of The Age were presented with a comprehensive and generally balanced coverage of issues and policies, parties and personalities.” Even though there was no evidence of bias, there were other conclusions about election reporting likely to be of interest to the Council, the press and the public. For example, there is clear evidence in both studies of a trend toward presidential- style election campaigns. The reporting and commentary tends to concentrate on the leaders of the major parties and their activities, diminishing the attention paid to the other candidates (including members of the Cabinet and Shadow Cabinet) and other parties, and, sometimes, the issues being debated. The Queensland study used a

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sporting analogy for the way in which elections are reported, seeing concentration on the leaders as stressing the contest rather than the issues and the debate. A corollary of this concentration on the leaders is the evident increase in close control of the flow of information. Because the activities of the leaders have become the focus, the release of policies is confined to material offered by the leaders; frequently Ministers and their shadows are not made available to explain or respond to questions on the impact of the proposed policies. Despite the greater control, the studies, particularly the Victorian study, indicate that the coverage of the campaign in the newspapers does illuminate the main issues in each state. Furthermore, The Age apparently, in the absence of opposition advocacy, analysed issues that it thought ought to be addressed. This may appear to be a case of the newspaper pressing its own agenda, but it can better be interpreted as the press filling the vacuum created by the absence of a strong debate or the perception (as noted in both campaigns) that the Opposition was not adequately holding the Government to account. What is clear is that personalities, not issues, are now central to the reporting of elections in Australia. The Courier-Mail has taken some issue with parts of the report on its coverage of the Queensland election, noting particularly that the paper had covered the issues central to the election in the months leading up to the election period, and a brief response from the newspaper’s editor has been included at the end of the report on the research. A more detailed response will be published in the November APC News. The Council will continue to encourage empirical research on the questions raised in these studies until a more definitive database of information on questions of fairness and balance in newspaper coverage of elections is established. For the moment, however, the Press Council can now respond to assertions of press bias or unfairness during elections with some empirical data to support the conclusion: “That’s not what the evidence suggests”.

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6.2 Content: Report on the Courier-Mail coverage of the 2006 Queensland election

Harry Dillon, Lecturer in Journalism Charles Sturt University

Executive summary

This research seeks to define and analyse various aspects of coverage of the 2006 state election campaign in Queensland as it appeared in the Brisbane-based daily tabloid newspaper, the Courier-Mail. The analysis quantifies and evaluates 420 editorial items that appeared in the paper during 34 days, commencing several days before the August 15 official announcement of the September 9 election by the Premier, Peter Beattie, and ending several days after Labor’s convincing victory that secured its fourth consecutive term in office. The study attempts to determine how the newspaper covered this election by application of a number of different methodologies: 1) Data coding: All 420 items were coded on the basis of a range of spreadsheet categories. These were: story type, content type, story mood and setting, sources used, story placement, story scale and visuals, party and leader first and second mentions, tone of party coverage, leaders performances and relative importance of various issues. 2) Graphics: The coded data was tabulated and transformed into a series of display graphs that illustrate trends in the coverage. 3) Trend analysis: Trends thus exposed were analysed to draw out general observations on the way the newspaper handled the election institutionally. These related to the paper’s approach to election coverage, its coverage priorities and the implications of these things for the electoral process. 4) Close reading of stories: A number of selected articles covering key aspects of the campaign were analysed to ascertain their relationship to the general trends in coverage identified elsewhere in the study. The outcome provides an overview of the newspaper’s method of operation in covering the election campaign: its content priorities, volume of material, use of sources, treatment of party leaders, and many other facets of coverage. While qualities such as fairness, balance, accuracy and objectivity are difficult to define and verify, this study identifies elements of coverage in the Courier-Mail that both bolster and work against these qualities. The analysis located no evidence of any direct, systematic and deliberate partiality or favouritism on the part of journalists and editors. Indeed, the Courier-Mail seems to have approached its tasks diligently and in accordance with accepted journalistic standards and practice. Within the constraints of its populist tabloid approach, the paper mounted an effective election coverage that maintained reasonable levels of fairness and impartiality balanced against news values and the requirement to make campaign coverage as interesting as possible. However, the very business of shaping campaign coverage has major, unavoidable implications for the nature of the messages that the media sends to the public. News

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media are obviously integral to election campaigns as conduits for information; the electoral system could not work without access to large volumes of media space given over to election coverage. In return, the media demand access to information and reserve the right to tell stories and interpret the campaign in whatever ways they see fit. Thus the news media accept their obligation to provide adequate coverage of a key democratic institution but at the same time have a vested interest in talking up its most conjectural, conflicting aspects in order to maximise appeal to readers. Experienced political figures become accustomed to the requirements of the media and learn how to satisfy these, often generating mutual benefits in the process. Realistically, election campaigns are joint exercises involving both the media and the political establishment, with both sides trying to utilise the other to achieve their particular aims in connection with the target audience of voters. The ongoing development of this process had led to the development of ground rules by which all participants play the election campaign game; those who do not play by the rules may find themselves either ignored or castigated by the media and political opponents. Some implications of the way the media in general play this game are well demonstrated in this analysis of election coverage in the Courier-Mail. Among the most important of these are:

Newspaper vested interest in the campaign process

The average of more than 12 items per day allocated to the election campaign reflects the vested interest the Courier-Mail had in this political process. As a major media outlet the newspaper assumes an obligation to devote a significant amount of space to state elections that on a sustained basis would be matched by few if other issues. The election scored a total of 26 front pages, making it far and away the most prominent story during this period. While this is a commendable recognition of the paper’s role in sustaining a viable democratic system, a significant outcome is that the newspaper takes on an institutional role in generating content throughout the campaign. This means the campaign is driven by a confluence of interests between the paper and other media, as well as political parties and other interest groups, all targeting the general public as an audience. In this instance the Courier-Mail generated a great deal of the material it ran, as opposed to simply reporting news as it happened. This is most obviously demonstrated by the preponderance of editorial, analysis and opinion items that made up nearly half the total coverage. As well, a great deal of the material – including heavy emphasis on opinion poll results – was generated by the Courier- Mail rather than by the political parties and other direct participants in the election campaign. This made the newspaper an active participant, rather than a detached observer of the process. In seeking to tell the story of the election campaign, the newspaper actually ‘invented’ much of its own content, in the sense that this material would not have existed if the Courier-Mail had not deliberately sought it out. The large volume of subjective opinion items in relation to straight news reportage is a key indicator of the newspaper’s high level of active participation in the election process. This trend appears to be increasing across the media and has implications for notions such as objectivity and impartiality. It could be argued that a greater emphasis upon straight news reports would better assist readers to reach their own conclusions rather

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than receiving them from the newspaper. However, any such arguments need to be balanced against the market place realities of which media executives are only too aware.

The sports analogy

In common with many other media outlets, the Courier-Mail coverage continually portrayed the election campaign as a type of sporting contest in which the winner’s prize was a shot at government. In this tactical war of attrition the point score tally is reckoned by the opinion polls, which indicate the state of play at any given time up to the final score on election day. Every permutation of the polls is analysed and the actions of all political players are assayed primarily for the impact they will have on this scoreboard. The extent of this preoccupation is evidenced by both by the levels of interpretation and analysis discussed above and by the immense predominance of the election process among the issues covered in this campaign. This issue accounted for about one-third of the overall coverage, making it far and away the most discussed aspect of the campaign. The sports analogy can be carried further in that the election contest generates a set of rules that players must understand if they are to score points, while those who don’t play by the rules may be punished by either being castigated or ignored in the media. Campaign coverage in the Courier-Mail reflected the supreme political gamesmanship of the Premier, Peter Beattie, whose performance was portrayed variously as statesman-like, masterful, devious and dishonest – often within the same newspaper piece. At the other extreme, the hapless Liberal Party leader, Bruce Flegg, was dismissed as an inexperienced, poor player akin to a political clown. While the exciting dynamic of sport, which has so much appeal in Australia, is clearly a compelling model for political coverage, it is doubtful that it does much to foster rational consideration of policy alternatives or the personal merits of candidates. There is little doubt the obsessive focus upon winners and losers cheapens and trivialises the election process but this is not only an issue for the media. Political parties engage in the same political game because this helps to channel their campaign efforts into gaining media coverage and, hopefully, influencing people’s voting intentions. It is possible to argue that in conducting a copybook, professional campaign, the Queensland ALP proved itself more fit to govern than the Coalition, which undeniably had an inferior game plan and fumbled badly in its execution. However, the case is inconclusive because it is difficult to establish any direct correlation between election campaigning – which is chiefly about perceptions and impressions – and the actual business of government, which involves the complex business of making policy decisions that actually work in the real world.

Leaders’ leading role

If the media tends to treat election campaigns as a type of sport, leaders of political parties are clearly the team captains who dominate the spotlight of media attention. This election demonstrated the immense focus on leadership as an electoral issue that occupies vast amounts of editorial coverage, often to the detriment of matters that no doubt have much greater direct impact upon the electorate. Leadership was the third most-discussed issue in the Courier-Mail in terms of stories directly addressing 42 Se ting eumsan er irit ulput ad et la facipsustio et ad enisisA ustraliannulputpate Press tet, Council senismolor iril irit prat, quamet, www.presscouncil.org.au/snpma/index_snpma2007.html [email protected] p 42 StateState of of the the News News Print Print Media Media in in Australia Australia 20072007 a supplement to the 2006 Report

the topic, however, it was a subtext running through most of the coverage. Specific issues-based stories made up less than one-third of the coverage, while parties and policies were relentlessly discussed in terms of leaders, especially the big three – Peter Beattie, Robert Springborg and Bruce Flegg. These leaders were far and away the main subjects for personality-based articles that accounted for one-in-five election articles. The same three men predominated in pictorial coverage and the fact that Mr Beattie could readily be visually identified as party leader no doubt added power to his campaign, while images of the dual Coalition front men emphasised the leadership problems, highlighted in the newspaper, that were possibly the main factor behind Labor’s victory. Further emphasising this problem, the Greens gained nearly 8 per cent of primary votes at the election but scored miniscule campaign coverage. No doubt this was partly due to the lack of Greens representation in Parliament but another likely factor is the absence of a distinctive figurehead upon whom to build media coverage. There is little doubt the media’s emphasis upon leadership is a distortion that bears little real connection with the realities of government but this trend is so deeply entrenched within the political-media complex that it would be naïve to assume it could easily be turned around. Needless to say it does little to inspire confidence that careful consideration of issues and policies is central to the media agenda or that of voters in general.

The advantages of government

While tone in news stories is a subtle matter, the clear trend in data on the Courier- Mail election campaign coverage is that the incumbent Government had a clear advantage in gaining media attention which it used to full advantage. Both the ALP and Mr Beattie dominated first mentions in articles of all types and scored remarkably positive coverage given that they were theoretically vulnerable on many fronts after a troubled term in office. The Premier in particular emerged as a dominant figure, somewhat emperor-like, persistently at the forefront of the campaign and implementing a copybook strategy based on tried and true strategies for success in Australian politics. While gaining first mention in stories does not necessarily involve a positive message, it has the advantage that readers skimming through stories – which might be most of them – are likely to notice a party or person named high up in the story rather than further down. In addition, first mentions tend to position the subject as an active, leading player while later mentions tend to be more reactive. The Opposition was reasonably competitive in terms of overall mentions but scored markedly badly in terms of first and positive mentions. National and Liberal mentions were fairly equal, which was not really a positive given the lack of cohesion evident in media coverage of the Coalition campaign. In particular, Mr Flegg performed disastrously in gaining nearly equal coverage, most of it negative, to Mr Springborg, the Opposition leader. In the absence of a strong Opposition able to pin the Government down on issues and policy, the Courier-Mail allowed Team Beattie to dominate the campaign by focusing attention on the perceived failings of the Coalition. This raises the question of how proactive the media should be in ‘keeping the bastards honest’ and steering the campaign towards matters of substance rather than ephemera, image making and pointless point-scoring. There is no easy answer

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to this quandary but it seems unfortunate that the active media involvement in the campaign discussed above did not put more pressure on Labor to prove its real worth and justify its record in office.

Real news, in-depth: not the top priority

It is fair to say that deep exploration of election issues and competing policies was not a major preoccupation for the Courier-Mail, given its populist, tabloid, tight and bright style. As stated above, issues-based items made up less than one-third of the coverage, well behind campaign analysis and slightly ahead of personality content. In addition, on any typical day during the campaign there were just one or two features, a story format that is commonly utilised to explore issues. Notable for their small numbers as well were set piece claim and response stories that made up about one in eight of the total number of stories. This story format allows the writer to cover an issue by stating the position of one side and juxtaposing against this the views of other relevant interests; the relative scarcity of these items in the Courier-Mail emphasises the general scarcity of issues analysis. Of the 164 items classified as news stories, more than one-third referred to only a single source and nearly an equal number referred to two sources. This leaves just 52 news stories quoting more than two news sources, a number that appears low in light of the fair expectation that journalists will seek out information from all sides of a public debate. Among the features, ten stories named either nil or only one source, while more than two-thirds noted two or more sources, which befits their greater length and breadth of content. Opinion and analysis items frequently mentioned no sources but this is not necessarily a concern given the nature of these items. As for news items, the average number of sources per story seems to be on the low side but simplistic criticism is not appropriate. Many single-source stories were short fillers and some others did not necessarily require a response or further comment. In addition, the need for concision is often paramount to the process of fitting material into available spaces. The matter is further complicated by the tendency of many media outlets to increasingly use online editorial space to expand upon story material appearing in conventional print media. Nonetheless, the sources issue is interesting, especially given that the Australian Press Council’s State of the News Print Media in Australia 2006 found a relatively high number of single-source stories in its survey of major print media outlets.

Visual and digital journalism on the rise

No less than half of the editorial items in the election campaign coverage of the Courier-Mail included at least one visual element and in many cases there were several. The abundance of photographs, graphs, charts, drawings and other graphic elements is a very notable aspect of the coverage, reflecting the current widespread and increasing emphasis on visual journalism in print media. This election also saw new levels of interaction between print pages and the website, with plentiful pointers to online resources and quotes lifted from the newspaper’s blogging columns appearing in its op-ed pages.

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Key statistics Total number of edition days surveyed = 34 Total number of editorial items analysed = 420 Average total of items/day = 12.4

Story type News/Feature 223 53 per cent Analysis/Opinion/Editorial 195 47 per cent

Content type Campaign 202 49 per cent Issue-based 121 29 per cent Personality 90 22 per cent

Story mood Serious 352 85 per cent Sensational 34 8 per cent Light-hearted 30 7 per cent

Story setting Media 183 44 per cent Political 92 22 per cent Set piece 57 14 per cent

Other 83 20 per cent

Story sources 0/1 source % 2 sources % 2+ sources % claim & % All items 117 35 77 24 91 28 41 13 Features only - 22 37 9 15 28 48 News stories only - 64 39 48 29 52 32

Story placement Page one 26 Pages two-five 26 After page five 346

Story scale, visuals Less than 10 paragraphs 179 10 paragraphs or more 231

With visual 215

Party 1st mentions % 2nd mentions total mentions Labor 247 55 89 350 Liberal 106 24 139 271 National 76 17 149 235 Greens 6 1 6 Others 15 3 9

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Tone of party coverage Positive Negative Initiative Neutral Labor 48 102 85 115 Liberal 13 101 70 87 National 21 59 63 92

Leader first mention % total story mentions Beattie 210 66 272 Flegg 55 17 133 Springborg 53 17 130

Leader performance 1st 2nd other positive negative initiative neutral mention mention mention Beattie 210 36 26 29 65 64 62 Flegg 55 48 30 6 61 16 23 Springborg 53 56 21 22 23 31 46

Coverage of issues Election process 153 33 per cent Healthcare 80 18 per cent Leadership 73 16 per cent Water supply 50 11 per cent Government services 26 6 per cent Regional affairs 18 4 per cent Transport 15 3 per cent Education 12 3 per cent Law and order 12 3 per cent Environment 12 3 per cent Other 37 9 per cent

Queensland election 9 September 2006

The election was held to elect 89 members of the Queensland Legislative Assembly. It was announced on August 15 by the Premier, Peter Beattie, whose Labor Government had then been in power for three consecutive terms. The election saw the Beattie Government defeat the National-Liberal Coalition led by Lawrence Springborg and Bruce Flegg, giving Labor a fourth term in office. Beattie thus became the first Labor leader of Queensland since the 1930s to win four consecutive elections. The ALP went into the election holding 60 of the 89 seats, a comfortable majority requiring a uniform negative swing of about 8 per cent for the Coalition to win

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sufficient seats from the Government to achieve an outright majority of 45. The Coalition held 23 seats (16 National and seven Liberal) and there were five Independents and a single One Nation Party member. Despite its commanding margin, the Beattie Government appeared vulnerable in the wake of three by-election losses since the 2004 election. In addition, it faced mounting administrative and policy problems including: • Alleged underspending on services and infrastructure • Inadequacies in the power grid resulting in blackouts • A pending water crisis blamed on poor government planning • The so-called Dr Death scandal at Bundaberg Hospital and subsequent reports critical of bureaucrats and ministers • A series of ministerial reshuffles resulting from controversies and resignations • Environmental management and land clearing issues • Transport and infrastructure in rural and regional areas • Management of South East Queensland’s population growth Thus there appeared to be widespread doubts about the Government’s competence and control over events as well as perceived deterioration in the quality of government services. Opinion polls during late 2005 and early 2006 indicated the Beattie Government’s standing had reached its lowest point since they took power in 1998. While the Government appeared at risk of losing public confidence to the point that it failed at the election, there were strong doubts the Opposition had convinced the electorate it was a better alternative. The long-standing differences between the National and Liberal Parties were not resolved despite strenuous efforts in the 18 months leading up to the election. Negotiations to improve the relationship broke down and were followed in May 2006 by the sudden announcement of a merger that was rapidly rescinded. Then on the eve of the election, the Liberal leader Bob Quinn was unexpectedly replaced by Bruce Flegg, who went on to make a series of well-publicised blunders during the campaign. Partly due to their troubled relationship, the Coalition partners entered the election without a clearly articulated and integrated set of policies. Despite some early signs the election would be close, Labor soon settled into a lead of about 10 per cent over the Coalition in opinion polls. The polls showed the Premier entered the campaign well ahead of the Coalition leaders and maintained a consistently higher standing throughout the campaign. Despite the handicap of a poor term in government, the Premier won public support for having a clearer vision than either of his opponents. As a result of all the above factors, the polls consistently showed that although many people believed the Government did not deserve to retain office, even more did not believe the Coalition did not deserve to win it.

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The ALP emerged from its election win with primary support virtually unchanged at nearly 47 per cent and holding 59 seats, just one down on its pre-election tally. The Coalition partners picked up one seat each and both gained marginally in primary votes, mainly at the expense of the One Nation Party. The Liberals gained about 20 per cent of votes to hold eight seats and the Nationals nearly 18 per cent to hold 17. Independents gained nearly 5 per cent of primary votes to take four seats, one less than previously, while the Greens failed to take a seat despite gaining nearly 8 per cent of primary votes.

[Editor’s note: The editor of The Courier-Mail, David Fagan, when he read the report on his newspaper’s coverage of the 2006 Queensland election, sought to have the following comments published with the report. A more detailed version of his rebuttal will be published in the November APC News, and posted to the Council’s website.

1. The subject of the report is the question of accuracy, fairness and balance in reporting elections. It is clearly stated that in terms of coverage, balance and fairness, the researchers categorically state there was no evidence of systemic bias towards one political party.

2. The researchers then make a number of conclusions and comments that appear to go far beyond their mandate. These comments and conclusions purport to be based on the data, taking into account the political context of the time. It is our very strong contention that these conclusions are ill-informed and inaccurate because:

2.1. Mistakes made by the author, including getting the name of one of the key political figures wrong, indicate his knowledge of the broader political context leading up to and surrounding the election campaign is severely lacking. Because the conclusions draw significantly on an understanding of the broader events of the time - not just the 32 days of the analysis - the conclusions and comments in Dillon’s executive summary should be dismissed.

2.2. Crucial to an understanding of the election campaign and the newspapers coverage of it was the reporting on the key election issues the year preceding the poll. I think it is widely acknowledged that The Courier-Mail led reporting on the dominant issues of the campaign: hospitals, water, growth pressures and ability of the coalition to function. As this was not taken into consideration, either in the data analysis, the trend analysis, or the conclusions and comments, I believe they have no credibility.

2.3 It appears from the loaded language used by the author (describing the newspaper as ``populist, tabloid, tight and bright’’) and his dismissal of its interest in issues that he has a preconceived view about how a newspaper of The Courier-Mail’s format reports elections. This insults its readers, journalists and publishers and appears to be prejudging the issue in a way the Press Council would condemn if published elsewhere.]

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6.3 Report on The Age coverage of the 2006 Victorian election

Ian Richards, Associate Professor of Journalism University of South Australia

Introduction

The 2006 Victorian State election was held on 25 November 2006. The following study examined coverage of the campaign and the election result by The Age and Sunday Age newspapers. Australian election campaigns are difficult to report, and those responsible for such coverage are familiar with accusations of bias, inaccuracy, lack of objectivity and lack of balance. Although such accusations are commonplace, evidence to substantiate them is not. This analysis was undertaken in the knowledge that notions such as bias and balance are notoriously difficult to define and even more difficult to prove. The research employed a combination of content analysis and discourse analysis in order to provide a measure of the extent, nature and depth of coverage of the campaign and of the issues that emerged during this time. The study found no evidence to support any accusations of deliberate or systematic bias or favouritism in the newspaper’s coverage towards any political parties, groups or individuals. While, as would be expected, the coverage was substantially influenced by conventional journalistic news values and by the obvious need to attract readers and hold their attention, within that context regular readers of the newspaper were presented with a generally comprehensive, detailed and balanced coverage. The analysis period covered the period from 23 October to 27 November. During this time more than 350 articles were published across 36 editions of the newspapers, accompanied by photographs, lists, quotes from key players, comment from subject “experts”, electorate interviews and, in the two days following the election, details of results on a seat by seat basis. The Age also devoted a section of its website to the election, but this was excluded from this analysis. More than 50 people authored articles, and the coverage also included contributions from Premier Steve Bracks and Leader of the Opposition Ted Baillieu. Retiring President of the Victorian Legislative Council, Monica Gould, provided a number of articles “from the red corner”, and former Liberal Party leader Robert Doyle provided an equal number of articles “from the blue corner”. In each case, these “corners” were printed side by side, with the political connections of each author identified at the end of the articles.

The issues

The Age began its election coverage on 23 October with a 24 page lift-out titled The State of Victoria. The opening article positioned the lift-out as a series of essays by “the election team” and included a review by the economics editor (Tim Colebatch) on the economic and ecological challenges that “cannot be dealt with during the course of a single parliament; they require a strategy for the next 10 or 15 years.” An indicator

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of how the paper viewed its role in the campaign was contained in the statement that “Some would say that the traditional role of the media to call politicians to account and demand answers to the big problems facing Victoria is the easy bit. A much tougher exercise is to switch the focus back to our own specialists and ask them to outline the key challenges facing the state and offer some policy options”. A second indicator of the paper’s view of its role was contained in the editorial, which suggested that, while elections are often fought by denigrating the opposition, The Age promoted its role in opening debate on long term policy issues and encouraging voters to demand answers on the big questions. Problems and policy are the focus of the lift- out with a clear delineation of the key topics affecting Victoria: health; environment; water; economy; education; society; transport and planning; law and order; as well as the central questions of what voters want from their state government, and what, indeed, is the role of the states. On the front page of this edition is an article reporting the decision by Natasha Stott- Despoja, former leader of the Australian Democrats, not to contest the next federal election, thereby “effectively sealing the demise of the Democrats”. A further reference to that party “having lost its slim chance of polling” with her resignation occurred on 31 October. Only three further mentions of the Democrats were found in the coverage of the election. In the last of these, written when final counting had not been completed, Democrat candidate John Mulholland was reported as saying that “the media ignored us during this election campaign”, a claim which at that point appeared to have some justification. The topics listed in the 23 October lift-out all appeared in the campaign and in the newspaper’s coverage of the campaign over the next few weeks. One of the dominant themes was water and sustainability, which appeared consistently throughout the coverage. The issues that received extensive coverage were

water and sustainability 14 headlines 28 articles health 8 headlines 19 articles education 4 headlines 19 articles public transport 4 headlines 17 articles policing 5 headlines 18 articles government economic accountability 8 articles The emphasis in the coverage appeared to reflect the emphasis given by the major parties to these issues in their own campaigning. Although such issues form the “bread and butter” of all state election campaigns in Australia, it is probable that aspects of the way the parties tackled them were influenced by media reportage, including the coverage in The Age. Both Government and Opposition policies were initially announced and then compared at regular intervals: for example, transport (9 November); health and education (10 November); school infrastructure pledges (12 November); stamp duty (13 November); and water (21 November). On 20 November the paper presented readers with a comprehensive list and comparison of Labor, Liberal, National and

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Greens election pledges and policies in an easy-to-read format. Throughout the election coverage, articles reporting criticism of one of the major party’s policy or policies by the other routinely included a response from “the other side”. Given the impact of the drought across Victoria, the issues bearing on water supply and sustainability naturally formed one of the dominant themes in the coverage. An example of the treatment of this theme was provided in the Sunday Age on 29 October, via a full page. The set-up of the page is such that a large photo of Premier Bracks fills centre page, with a brief outline of Labor policy. The photo is flanked by a column each side on the subject of water. Above the photo is information about Liberal policy, below are articles on Family First and the Greens. The latter two focus on the likelihood of those parties getting members elected but contain only the briefest description of party policy. The articles on water are thus the most prominent policy discussion material on the page. In the article on the right the issue of how dire Victoria’s water needs could become is discussed, while in the column on the left a possible solution is flagged. The article asserts that the parties should consider a policy of reducing logging in water catchment areas. Health was another major theme of the coverage. In addition to the articles noted above, the closely contested seat of the Minister for Health, Bronwyn Pike, was the subject of eight further articles, the prime focus being the news angle represented by the headline which stated Greens poised to topple Pike in Melbourne. On 30 October The Age reported on emergency department patients; time on trolleys prior to admission to a bed; lack of beds for mental health patients; and reported that neither party had yet adequately declared policy, stating that “Less than a month before the election, both parties have yet to reveal their policies for improving the hospital system, although the Liberals recently revealed their mental health policy”. On 11 November, the newspaper ran a comparison of party health promises that had by then been announced. This article also reported the Liberals’ claim that Labor had closed 350 beds against Labor’s claim that it had opened 919. The Liberal claim was balanced against the reporting of Labor’s assertion that the Liberal promises had not been adequately costed. Transport policy was the subject of early Liberal campaign promises and featured early in The Age, accompanied by comment on Labor’s “responsible” but unexciting response. On 29 October the newspaper claimed its idea to remove public transport zone three was taken up by both parties. During the campaign nine articles were published which reported the way in which the Opposition was endeavouring to remind the electorate of Labor’s “broken promises” on toll roads. Education is one of the most consistent issues in Australian state election campaigns, and this one proved to be no exception. In this case, the Liberals received early coverage, in part because Opposition raised the subject before the Government. After articles reporting the parties’ pledges and comments by ‘expert’ groups on them, two days prior to election day a full page report asserted that “the fundamental differences in the two major parties are most starkly evident in education policy”.

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A further aspect of the coverage was the question of whether the two main non-Labor parties would agree to form a coalition after the election in order to have the numbers to govern. On 15 November economics editor Tim Colebatch pointed out that, while the media had largely focused on the Labor Government and the Liberal Opposition, the “real choice” was between Labor and a Liberal/National coalition.

The minor contenders

The Nationals appeared in four headlines and 50 articles. The main themes running through these were issues around the allocation of National preferences; the question of whether the Nationals would be prepared to form a coalition with the Liberals if the election outcome made that possible; prospects for the election of Nationals’ candidates in individuals seats; and criticism by various Nationals of the major parties. As would be expected, the common thread to virtually all reporting of the Nationals’ policies was the focus on rural Victoria. National Party policy was featured on 25 October, with particular reference to the Nationals’ promises to upgrade country roads; reduce vehicle registration fees for concession holders; upgrade rural rail lines; and abolish the motorcycle levy. A consistent sub-theme in the reporting of the Nationals was their claim that Labor had been “too focused on Melbourne”. The Greens were mentioned directly in 18 headlines, of these articles 15 were focused primarily on preference deals, the likelihood of Green members being elected or the balance of power that would result, whereas Greens policy was often mentioned only as part of a wider discussion of water and sustainability issues rather than being presented in discrete articles. The first article headlining the Greens, Greens certain of Parliament Place appeared on 29 October; on 31 October a report suggested the Greens were “tipped to hold balance of power in the upper house”. Starting on 7 November there were six articles focusing on Bronwyn Pike’s seat of Melbourne. These articles were particularly focused on the distribution of preferences given to the Greens as a determining factor although they also discussed campaigning style. In total there were 31 articles discussing preferences. On the day after the election, an article by Carol Nader and Jill Stark commented on “talk of dirty politics and preference deals” having dominated the weeks leading up to the election. Initial coverage of Family First appeared on as a minor part of a page one article on 23 October in which he reported the party’s warning that the Greens were “soft on drugs”. During the campaign, 21 articles mentioned Family First in one form or another, most commonly in regard to what the party meant by “family” and what the party’s policies meant for families. Three articles reported the potential for preference deals with the Liberals, and two reported the potential for preference deals from Labor, one of which reported criticism from the Greens that Labor could preference Family First. On 10 November Family First’s Cameron Eastman was profiled in a piece on headlined Ex-commander aims to rouse the sleeping giant. Although one sentence in the piece referred to broader policy, the focus of the article was on the chances of Eastman gaining a seat. On the day after the election, but while the count was still incomplete, The Age reported that Family First was unlikely to win any seats, even though the party had 52 Se ting eumsan er irit ulput ad et la facipsustio et ad enisisA ustraliannulputpate Press tet, Council senismolor iril irit prat, quamet, www.presscouncil.org.au/snpma/index_snpma2007.html [email protected] p 52 StateState of of the the News News Print Print Media Media in in Australia Australia 20072007 a supplement to the 2006 Report

almost doubled its vote. Another article reported Family First as receiving 4.27 per cent of the primary vote, only 1 per cent less than the Nationals. A report on the eve of the election stated that the minor party People Power could win a seat or two in the upper house, although election analysts were reported as saying that, while such an outcome was mathematically possible, it was extremely unlikely. In the same article The Age reported People Power candidate Stephen Mayne’s view that the party’s policy of being in the middle was “inoffensive”, stating that “it’s hard to argue with a platform that wants to clean up politics, get rid of poker machines and provide a better deal for carers, people with disabilities and mental illness”. An article on 31 October described People Power as “centrist anti-pokies party” which had lost several high-profile representatives and is now experiencing “inner turmoil”. Despite the considerable role they have played in recent times nationally and at state level, the Australian Democrats did not receive extensive coverage. The party was the focus of only five articles, two of which dismissed the party as electorally dead following the decision by Natasha Stott-Despoja not to stand again. One article on 23 November did report the campaign by Paul Kavanagh although the key focus of the piece was Mr Kavanagh’s extensive walking in part to provide health benefits following advice from his doctor rather than his policies. Only five articles were published in relation to independent candidates. Perhaps the most significant of these was an interview with Russell Savage, independent for Mildura, following his defeat.

The Campaign

On 31 October The Age characterised the campaign thus far as “grandiose promises” from Baillieu, and “tit-for-tat, anything-you-can-do” responses from Bracks. The editorial asserted that, despite this approach resulting in some worthwhile policies, what was needed was “broader visions on this state’s sustainable and smarter state economies”, in the process referring to its own lift-out that “identified issues which deserve focus”. It was also argued that long-term, far-sighted policies were needed rather than “rear-view politics”, and a joint approach to deal with issues such as climate change was advocated. In the latter phase of the campaign several articles appeared that portrayed the Liberal leader’s campaigning style as showmanship and commented on his somewhat unusual appearances such as swinging on a lamppost, singing, and emerging from his regular swim in Speedos to meet reporters. Against this, Steve Bracks’ campaigning was reported to be “statesman like”, with the Premier being at the head of a team who had been included in the campaign, in contrast with Baillieu’s “one man show”. On the last day prior to polling day an item appeared under the headline Campaign highs and lows, listing “best quotes, best and worst speech, best stunt, biggest self promoter, most memorable aids, best protest, biggest gaffe, biggest dummy spit, clumsiest moment, missing in action ...”. This was a light-hearted gibe at both major parties and some of the minor ones, and is fairly balanced.

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Election advertising was an issue at various times. On 26 October a planned Labor TV ad using a “grab” of Ted Baillieu was reported under the headline Labor’s ‘Grubby’ ad starts campaign rolling. The piece, accompanied by four photographs from the ad, took up a half-page. The ABC demanded that the ad be edited so as to remove footage taken from Stateline. The ad was described as linking Baillieu to Kennett’s public service cutbacks and the photos demonstrate that as Baillieu’s face is superimposed with the words 3,500 nurses cut; 800 police cut; and Don’t let Baillieu take us back. Baillieu was quoted as responding, “People will remember that it was the Cain and Kirner governments that left Victoria all but bankrupt, and Steve Bracks was senior advisor to that government”. On the 24 November front page article the campaign was described as having turned nasty, with Labor claims of personal profit by Baillieu when schools were sold under the Kennett government. A Labor TV campaign began on 1 November documenting the awarding of sales of former school sites to real estate agency Baillieu, Knight and Frank, a link The Age claimed to have exposed in 1994. Mr. Baillieu was reported as denying he had profited because he was national director of the company at the time; he was also president of the Liberal Party. The Liberal Party national treasurer of the time was also linked to purchase of the schools, according to the same report. Labor was reported several times, starting on 6 November, attacking Baillieu’s share portfolio, including claims in ALP television ads that he would be “a part-time Premier”. Considerable space and a total of seven articles were devoted to the issue of Ted Baillieu’s share portfolio, including one half-page list documenting the contents. This list also appeared above a detailed article titled, Baillieu Share Silence may be hurting campaign, which also discussed the issue of Mr Baillieu’s refusal to “spell out under what circumstances he will step outside cabinet meetings when his ministers are discussing companies in which he owns shares”. The article incorporated an opinion from ethicist and governance expert that the responses were far from satisfactory. On 1 November a page one article reported that the campaign was becoming negative, with news that the Opposition’s television campaign would feature Bracks with a Pinocchio-style “growing nose” relating to allegedly broken promises such as making EastLink toll free; and a report that the last week of Labor’s television campaign would link Baillieu with Kennett-era public service job cuts. On 16 November an article reported that “The Age believes” that the Nationals were planning a series of television advertisements in which the Liberals would be criticised for being “city-centric”; the Nationals leader Peter Ryan was reported to have attacked the Liberals following the major parties’ preference announcements because Liberal preferences would be allocated to the Greens in four city seats. The Liberals’ chances of winning appeared to have been dealt a severe blow, and the Nationals leader was quoted as promising “retribution’’. On 21 November The Age reported that Labor advertisements claimed the Greens had “sold out to the Liberal Party” and that the Greens had threatened court action in relation to the claim. According to lawyers quoted in the report, the advertisements used John Howard’s head inside the Greens “trademark triangle”. Other comments in

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the same report included Labor’s launch of advertisements opposing Federal industrial relations law; Liberal advertisements criticising Labor ads for being anti-Baillieu rather than concentrating on policy; Liberal ads criticising Bracks on a broken promise regarding tolls on Scoresby freeway; Liberals distributing pamphlets on Labor/Green “deal”; and the Nationals using advertisements taking a swipe at the Liberals over the “Greens deal”. One of the more newsworthy aspects of the campaign was the allocation of party preferences. There were 30 articles reporting or discussing various preference negotiations or the deals that followed those negotiations, six of which carried headlines relating to the issue. In these 30 articles, negotiations over the allocation of preferences by Labor, Liberals, the Nationals, the Greens and Family First parties are reported. There was considerable speculative comment, with multiple reports about the negotiations, considered by some to be unseemly and, indeed, “grubby”, and to be more about winning seats than any sympathetic alignment of policies. An example of this was provided by the piece published on page 1 on 6 November. The article reported that “warfare” was about to “erupt” between the Liberal Party and potential coalition partner the Nationals over the preference deal the Liberals were “close to striking with Labor”, under which Labor preferences would go to the Liberals in some National rural seats; in return the Liberal Party would give Labor its preferences ahead of the Greens in some inner-city seats. As a result, the Nationals could lose two of their seven lower house seats, with their leader and deputy leader in danger of defeat; and they could lose two or three of their four upper house seats because the new proportional voting system for Legislative Council would make it harder for rural candidates to win. A focus on personalities was a notable aspect of the campaign coverage. At several points, the personality was a “ghost from the past”. Mention was made in a number of articles of Jeff Kennett in relation to the Labor campaign “reminding” voters of the cuts he made in Victoria and trying to link Ted Baillieu to him as close personally and likely to repeat such policies. In an article on 8 November, a former deputy secretary of the federal Treasury argued that the Kennett Government had restored the state’s economic viability, and that the Bracks Government had been the beneficiary of this. Among other things, he argued that Labor’s strategy of trying to link Ted Baillieu to Kennett might backfire because it might not be interpreted as negatively by voters as Labor had assumed it would be. The main personalities to receive attention during the campaign were, of course, the leaders of the two major parties, Premier Bracks and Opposition Leader Baillieu. Bracks was referred to in a majority of articles, extending from major news stories to minor briefs, from stories reporting major policy areas to personality and colour pieces. He was consistently reported in simple terms such like Premier Bracks stated or Bracks announced. When he was described terms were used such as “Ballarat boy of Lebanese ancestry” or “Nice Mr Bracks”; or his activity is described such as “The Premier is on his haunches deep in conversation with a pair of quietly industrious pre-school boys”. The descriptors were overwhelmingly positive or neutral; the main exception to this pattern was the description of him as being over-confident of winning. 55 Se ting eumsan er irit ulput ad et la facipsustio et ad enisisA ustraliannulputpate Press tet, Council senismolor iril irit prat, quamet, www.presscouncil.org.au/snpma/index_snpma2007.html [email protected] p 55 StateState of of the the News News Print Print Media Media in in Australia Australia 20072007 a supplement to the 2006 Report

The Opposition Leader was described in more mixed terms, beginning with physical attributes, “The first thing you notice about him is his height ... six foot seven … he manages to tower over everyone … without being an imposing presence … Ted Baillieu comes across as just a little shy”. Later in the campaign, descriptions such as, “In a matter of weeks, Mr Baillieu has morphed from the Liberals’ nervous and unassuming leader to an all-singing, all-dancing contender”; and “Once criticized for not being visible enough, Mr Baillieu has evolved into a one-man side-show in the latter weeks of the campaign, as much a celebrity as a statesman”, appeared. The explanation for the somewhat mixed nature of the coverage by the newspaper of Baillieu compared with Bracks seems obvious: the controversy surrounding his share portfolio, and the somewhat theatrical nature of some of his campaign appearances. The treatment of the former issue is summed up by the headline Why Baillieu must sell his share portfolio. An article also made a comparison with John Howard and Peter Costello’s stance of non-share holding. As already indicated, the Opposition Leader’s campaigning style involved an unusual level of showmanship and this, too, was a consistent aspect of the coverage of his campaigning. Such showmanship is, as yet, not a common feature of electioneering in Australia, and the newspaper’s focus on this can be explained in terms of news values and as a means of showing readers what the Opposition Leader was “really” like. An opinion piece on 22 November referred to his “budgie smugglers” and noted that “as long as they (voters) remember the face. Or body. Or both”. The two leaders’ partners also received some attention from The Age. On 16 November a piece headed Nobody votes for them so why do they matter?, with accompanying photographs of the leaders’ partners, both women were quoted as describing themselves primarily as wives and mothers. The article compared their levels of political involvement, and financial and educational backgrounds, and Ms Bracks was described as being a political advantage for her husband. Commenting on the issues around Baillieu’s share portfolio, his wife defended him, saying that “They (Labor) are playing the man and I think they are a bunch of bullies”. There were several references to Ted Baillieu as “The hunk from Hawthorn”, a phrase reportedly used by his wife. In addition to Bracks’ reference to federal industrial relations policy, the Federal Liberal Party also made an intermittent appearance in the coverage. On 11 November Prime Minister John Howard was reported to have embarrassed Mr Baillieu by stating that the Liberals would inevitably form a coalition with the Nationals if this was what was required to form a government. Mr Howard was also reported to support Baillieu in regard to his handling of his share portfolio and the offer to place it in a blind trust. On 13 November, the front-page lead story reported Prime Minister Howard’s claims that the Bracks Government was taking credit for the economic success of the Federal Government, that the Victorian budget was operating at a deficit, and that the Victorian Government had “squandered” a GST windfall. It also contained a response from Victorian Treasurer John Brumby, pointing out that the state’s budget was calculated the same way as every other state’s budget, and that the state budget was in good shape.

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At different stages of the campaign the views of a number of interest groups were also reported, including the police, nurses and the churches. On 6 November, The Age ran an article reporting the views of a coalition of church welfare groups about the need to consider deprived families. It reported a view that mental health funding was poorly targeted and, indeed, helped “middle class” people. On 8 November, a piece titled School funding outcry quoted the view of the chairman of the Catholic Education Commission of Victoria that, “We are the poor cousins as far as the State Government is concerned”. On 8 November, The Age reported police union “wars”, and warnings to both parties not to interfere with police independence in response to a Liberal proposal where they would deploy more police if elected. Labor Police Minister Tim Holding was reported to have responded that such an approach was irresponsible and that operational matters were the province of police. The Opposition police spokesperson Kim Wells, in response to a question on how such policy could be enforced, was reported to have stated that he would query the Commissioner if police were not deployed in accordance with their election undertakings; although he would not sack her if she did not comply but, rather, would “negotiate”. In a report headed Lib promise fails to sway police union the Police Association responded to party promises regarding police With regard to Labor, the report claimed there was “a deal made in private” and that “the smart money” was saying Bracks has agreed with the Association that it “won’t be playing hardball when the association is involved in pay negotiations”. On page one on 1 November, the newspaper reported that its investigative unit had used Freedom of Information laws to uncover documents that showed that “A senior Bracks Government minister interfered with the tendering for an $8 million state contract to appease building unions and their members …”. The article quoted a senior public servant and outlined information from internal documents, including the diary of a public servant, which indicated that, after being removed from a short list of tendering firms, a company had complained to the Building and Construction Commission and subsequently been returned to the short list – after which it went on to win the tender.

The result

In the event, Labor won 55 of the 88 lower house seats (seven fewer than in 2002), the Liberals 23 seats, and the Nationals nine. One independent was re-elected and one lost his seat. In the Legislative Council, Labor won 19 of 40 seats, the Liberals 15, the Greens three, the Nationals two and the Democratic Labor Party one (the first time the DLP had won a seat in the Victorian Parliament since 1955). These results were covered comprehensively in The Sunday Age next day. Angles covered included Labor’s “comfortable” win, results in individual electorates; Steve Bracks’s success in becoming the first Victorian Labor leader to win a third term; the possibility that he could remain in power until 2014 and thus become the state’s longest-serving premier; Bracks’ assessment of the significance of the victory (“unequivocal message to John Howard over his ‘extreme’ industrial relations laws”). 57 Se ting eumsan er irit ulput ad et la facipsustio et ad enisisA ustraliannulputpate Press tet, Council senismolor iril irit prat, quamet, www.presscouncil.org.au/snpma/index_snpma2007.html [email protected] p 57 StateState of of the the News News Print Print Media Media in in Australia Australia 20072007 a supplement to the 2006 Report

An edited version of Baillieu’s concession of defeat was also run. There was an opinion piece the next day in which Baillieu was described as a ‘’walking karaoke machine in budgie smugglers’’. It noted Labor had a comfortable majority; that the Liberal campaign was not about a team but “all about Ted”; the shadow treasurer was described as “uninspiring” because he had “managed to completely stuff up the Liberal’s major costings announcement’’. By comparison, the Labor campaign had been based on policies.

Summary

The Age newspaper has long played an influential role in the political life of the state of Victoria. Despite its limitations, this analysis suggests that the newspaper continues to play that role – or, at least, that it did so in the state election of 2006. The analysis indicated that The Age both carried and contributed to serious discussion of the major issues which emerged during the election campaign, and that this contribution originated both from the contenders for power and also from its own assessment of what was best for Victoria. What some readers would no doubt have regarded as unduly serious coverage was balanced by a regular input of lighter content. As a result, regular readers of The Age were presented with a comprehensive and generally balanced coverage of issues and policies, parties and personalities. The role played by the newspaper was more than being a means of information transmission to electors, for not only did it select and shape the campaign material it carried according to relatively predictable journalistic considerations such as news values and the need to hold the attention of readers but, on occasion, it also directly shaped the coverage. The most notable example of this was the part the newspaper played over the issue of Ted Baillieu’s share portfolio and the potential it raised for conflicts of interest should the Liberal leader find himself Premier after the election. The analysis undertaken also revealed the dominant part played in the reportage – and apparently also public perception - by the personal style of the leaders of the major political parties. It is hardly novel to observe that Australian politics is going down the path blazed by US politics in terms of celebrity and personality, or at least with regard to the personality and image of the party leaders. This trend was apparent in the reportage of this campaign, encouraged by the showmanship of the Leader of Opposition, in particular. The minor parties received less coverage than might have been expected, especially the Australian Democrats which seemed to be regarded as spent force from the early days of the campaign. This may or may not have been the case but, undoubtedly, journalistic portrayals of the party in this light did nothing to prevent that prediction from being realised. Other aspects of the campaign that received coverage included the vexed relationship between the Liberals and the Nationals, and the return from the politically dead of the Democratic Labor Party.

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7. Press Freedom 2007

Inez Ryan, Policy Officer Australian Press Council

The erosion of free speech that has taken place in Australia in the last decade has continued in the last year. From 2006 to 2007 Australia has moved further down the Freedom House press freedom rankings from 31st to 39th place. The restrictions on press freedom come primarily from governments and the courts, with the federal government setting the tone for other levels of government.

Anti-terrorism and related legislation

Anti-terror laws have again been a key theme in 2006-2007, although the implication that the terrorism threat in Australia has increased, or even genuinely warrants the existing restrictions on personal and media freedom, is doubtful. For the Press Council, the concern is that these laws have also had the effect of shielding governments from public scrutiny. Even if anti-terrorism measures could be shown to be necessary for the protection of Australia’s security, there is a widespread belief that they go much further than is necessary and intrude excessively into freedom of expression. The most disturbing development in the last year has been the federal government’s moves to censor material classed as “advocating terrorism”. The Classification (Publications, Films and Computer Games) Amendment (Terrorist Material) Bill 2007 provides for the refusal of classification of material that directly or indirectly counsels a terrorist act. The government proceeded with this legislation in spite of the fact that existing censorship regulation enabled the banning of two questionable books (Join the Caravan and Defence of the Muslim Lands). A number of organisations believe that the way that legislation has been drafted will extend the scope of the ban to material that it was not intended to capture, necessarily forcing self-censorship by publishers and artists. The legislation has been amended with a view to ameliorating some of these concerns, but retains its potential to facilitate the banning of material intended to contribute to public discussion or debate, in particular, material that is in the nature of opinion or commentary. In June 2006 the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security reviewed the Sheller Report – a report commissioned by the Attorney-General to look at federal security and counter-terrorism legislation. Sheller had drawn attention to section 102.7 of the Commonwealth Criminal Code, which criminalises support for terrorist organisations. Submissions to the Committee noted that the section had the potential to act as an impediment to free speech, and that this potential should be minimised by narrowly defining “support” in order to ensure that commentary or the expression of political views would not fall within the definition. The Attorney- General, Philip Ruddock, submitted that the word “support” could not be construed so as to ban publication of views favourable to a proscribed organisation, but the Committee recommended that the wording of the offence of providing support to a terrorist organisation should be changed to “providing material support” to ensure that

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there would be no ambiguity as to its meaning. The government did not act on that recommendation. The imposition of statutory restrictions or specific orders preventing suspects from speaking to the media about their experience continues to impact on press freedom. Section 3ZQT of the Anti-Terrorism Act 2005, for example, prevents the disclosure of the fact that an individual has received a notice to produce documents to the Australian Federal Police in relation to a terrorism investigation. The media circus that ensued in the wake of the Haneef case is something of an aberration. The news media became a platform that was exploited by the prosecution and politicians, and subsequently by defence lawyers, to manipulate public perceptions of Dr Haneef’s conduct and the government’s actions. (For more details on the Haneef case, see Issues in press ethics, in Chapter 5.) The media generally have difficulty gaining access to terrorism suspects. Members of the Australian media are also affected by extra-territorial measures intended to address terrorism. In the case of David Hicks, an order precluding media interviews was issued by the US as a condition of Hicks’ return to Australia. There has been some debate as to whether the order is enforceable in Australia. Whether enforceable or not, it has had the effect of silencing Hicks and preventing any media interviews from being conducted. There appears to be a growing intolerance by Australian governments of alternative or critical views that might be held by intending visitors to our shores. Most recently, the author Abdel Bari-Atwan had difficulty obtaining a visa to enable him to attend the Brisbane Writers Festival to discuss his book, The Secret Life of al-Qa’ida. Mr Bari- Atwan was ultimately provided with an Australian visa, but only after media coverage exposed the unconscionable delay in the issuing of a visa. Undoubtedly the highest profile media event during 2007 was the APEC meeting in Sydney. The security enforced during APEC was the most restrictive in Australia’s history, with large areas of the city being closed in order to protect the visiting heads of state and to exclude protestors. Leaving aside questions of excessive security, from the perspective of press freedom, the media accreditation system appeared to be used politically. Even accredited journalists and photographers were, in certain instances, removed from press conferences and photo opportunities in order to avoid potential embarrassment to foreign leaders. In one notable example, a photographer accredited by The Epoch Times was excluded from a press conference with the Chinese President, apparently due to fears that she would raise issues related to Falun Gong. This was in spite of the presence of a government minder sitting nearby to ensure that no disruption occurred. Several other journalists and photographers are alleged to have been removed from the room at the same time, including a photographer from The Sydney Morning Herald, evidently to avoid the impression that The Epoch Times was being singled out. In camera hearings have been a feature of the anti-terrorism legislation. In 2007 evidence was taken in camera in the Benbrika trial. It is impossible to know the true number of in camera proceedings since, by definition, they are secret. But the number

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of in camera proceedings will almost certainly increase in the near future as a number of terrorist suspects are presently in custody.

Court action to inhibit the free flow of information

In addition to the hearing of terrorism cases in secret, closed courts, poor access to court documents and extensive use of suppression orders continue to frustrate journalists attempting to report matters of public interest in Australian courts. The News Limited database records at least 221 new suppression orders that were issued by Australian courts between 1 January and 1 September 2007. In total, the database lists 887 extant suppression orders. That number is additional to those instances of suppression that are mandated by legislation, such as the Family Law Act and other laws limiting the reporting of matters pertaining to minors and sexual assault victims, amongst others. On a positive note, certain members of the judiciary have indicated an intention to adopt a more open posture with regard to the media. Justice Cummins in the Victorian Supreme Court has stated that he will release film of his decision in the matter of Dupas, while Queensland Chief Justice De Jersey announced that he will, in future, allow journalists to make audio recordings of court proceedings. Similarly, in Victoria, the government has responded to media criticism in relation to the difficulty of obtaining police images by passing the Justice and Road Legislation (Law Enforcement) Bill 2007, which establishes a procedure for the provision of police mug shots to the media for a specified time following the conviction of offenders. The legislation is a positive development.

Access to government information

Less than twelve months after his success in the High Court in the McKinnon case, the Treasurer, Peter Costello, is now expanding the power of the Trade Practices Commission to sue groups who encourage participation in secondary boycotts. Senior lawyers warn that members of the media may find themselves subject to action for breach of the Trade Practices Act where they publish material that could be interpreted as being supportive of those who advocate boycotts. Australia’s Freedom of Information procedures, which have for some time been found to be an inadequate tool for journalists seeking information in relation to government policy, have continued to present a bottleneck for press freedom. Federal Environment Minister Malcolm Turnbull refused an FoI application on behalf of Channel Seven seeking access to documents relating to the federal government’s plans to take control of the Murray-Darling Basin. The government claimed that publication of the documents would damage federal-state relations. The current restrictive access to information under FoI procedures, and the use of the laws to selectively release information that may denigrate others, highlights the importance of developing objective criteria against which decisions to disclose information can be measured, and the need for independent administrators to decide

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whether or not documents should be released. The default position needs to be release of information, with an ability to withhold matters of public interest on in the most extreme cases, and only when defensible public interest justifications can be evinced. There are potentially positive developments. Victorian Premier John Brumby has announced that he intends to reform Victoria’s FoI legislation. A similar, more recent, announcement has been made by new Queensland Premier, Anna Bligh, promising an overhaul of the Freedom of Information Act 1992 (Qld) to be conducted by an independent panel, chaired by former the chairman of Queensland’s Electoral and Administrative Review Committee (and retired Courier-Mail journalist) David Solomon. In addition, the nation’s two most prominent FoI investigative journalists, Michael McKinnon and Matthew Moore, have had some notable successes in the last year, including the release of information concerning the quality of restaurant food, the extent of equipment failure experienced by troops in Afghanistan, and a promise from the minister in charge of the NSW Food Authority to legislate to allow the publication of information concerning restaurant inspections. The role of whistleblowers in maintaining government accountability has become a significant issue. The basic problem of the vulnerability of government and corporate employees who disclose misconduct and mismanagement will remain, until there is statutory protection for genuine public interest whistleblowers. A substantial deterrent to legislation is the fact that a clear distinction between those in that category and those addicted to unjustified leaks for less admirable reasons is very hard, nigh impossible, to draw legislatively. The federal Attorney-General promised in June 2007 to introduce reforms to the Evidence Act to give courts discretion to excuse journalists from being required to identify their sources. He also urged state and territory Attorneys-General to enact matching legislation. The federal reform as enacted copies the NSW Act and has been described as inadequate and no real protection for journalists or their sources (Australian Press Council letter to Attorneys-General, 22 May 2007). Geoffrey Robertson QC describes the provision as a “snare” for journalists and their legal representatives. Consequently, a key issue that needs to be addressed in any attempt to promote a truly free press in Australia must be the introduction of a shield law that places the onus on the necessity of proving that there is a strong public interest in journalists revealing their sources in any particular case. (For more details on protection of sources, see Issues in press ethics, in Chapter 5.)

Defamation

Litigation in relation to defamation has been a major issue for publishers for decades, not only because of the “chilling effect” that is often referred to, but also because of the significant cost to publishers of defending actions, even where such actions are futile and vexatious. The number of new defamation actions has apparently decreased significantly since the commencement of the harmonised Defamation Acts. The Herald and Weekly Times has received NO writs in relation to material published after commencement 62 Se ting eumsan er irit ulput ad et la facipsustio et ad enisisA ustraliannulputpate Press tet, Council senismolor iril irit prat, quamet, www.presscouncil.org.au/snpma/index_snpma2007.html [email protected] p 62 StateState of of the the News News Print Print Media Media in in Australia Australia 20072007 a supplement to the 2006 Report

of the uniform legislation, but has received three notices of concern, which were settled. Fairfax Media has received one writ in the 18 months to July 2007 against its Melbourne masthead, The Age, and six statements of claim, five relating to material published after the commencement of the uniform defamation legislation, against its Sydney newspapers, The Sydney Morning Herald and The Sun Herald. Nevertheless there are still actions under the old laws passing through the courts. Several high profile cases have been determined recently. Perhaps the most notable was the High Court’s decision on aspects of John Fairfax Publications Pty Ltd v Gacic [2007] HCA 28. That decision dealt with a restaurant review and the role of the jury in defamation cases. The High Court declared that the NSW Court of Appeal has the right to substitute its own decision for that of the jury if it finds the jury’s decision to have been unreasonable. The High Court also found that the appropriate standards to apply in cases of “business defamation” are different from the community standards that apply in other defamation matters. In practical terms, the decision implies that, where a business suffers injury as a result of a negative article, the jury will be required to decide that the article is defamatory. (Incidentally, the harmonised defamation laws, not in place when the action was initiated, have removed the ability of corporations to bring actions for defamation unless they are non-profit organisations or have fewer than ten employees.) The NSW Supreme Court has yet to hear the newspaper’s defences so the Gacic case has not yet been finally determined. The case of Obeid v John Fairfax Publications Pty Limited [2006] NSWSC 1059, again under the old laws, dealt with an article that alleged bribery in relation to planning approvals. The defendants were found to have acted unreasonably in failing to ensure that the article gave an accurate impression. Consequently, the defendant could not rely on the qualified privilege defence. The decision in the Obeid case highlighted an aspect of defamation law that has concerned legal professionals who act for media defendants. While the Reynolds principles laid down by the House of Lords were intended as a guide to whether a defendant had acted reasonably, the courts appear in many instances to be treating the Reynolds principles as “hurdles” that media defendants must overcome, rather than illustrations of what should be taken into consideration by the courts in deciding whether publication’s actions were reasonable. In the UK case of Jameel & Ors v Wall Street Journal Europe Sprl [2006] UKHL 44, the House of Lords has more recently indicated that the emphasis should be on the professional judgment of editors and journalists, suggesting that, where there is a public interest in the publication of a news story, a publisher establishing an absence of carelessness would establish qualified privilege. As might be expected, there are recent indications of attempts by lawyers to get around new defamation laws by using other causes of action. Alan Bond, for example, has launched an action that claims that a newspaper article written by Paul Barry was misleading and deceptive and therefore in breach of the Trade Practices Act. In response to the defence’s argument that news articles are exempt from s52 of the Act, because of a media exemption in s65A, Bond’s lawyers claimed that the journalist, being a freelancer, was paid to provide a commercial service and that the exemption did not apply. The court rejected that contention and dismissed the matter.

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Privacy

In 2007 privacy law in Australia is in a state of transition. While privacy issues are not new, there is increasing advocacy of a statutory cause of action that would very likely further restrict reporting. In addition to an Australian Law Reform Commission (ALRC) review of federal privacy law (it has just released its Discussion Paper 72, the penultimate stage of the inquiry), the NSW Law Reform Commissions (NSW LRC) and the Victorian Law Reform Commissions are conducting inquiries into questions related to privacy law. Meanwhile courts are proceeding to evolve what may become a common law tort of privacy. The case of Doe v ABC [2007] VCC 281 concerned the identification of an individual in breach of s4(1A) of the Judicial Proceedings Reports Act 1958 (Vic.), which prohibits the publication of information identifying victims of sexual offences. There is no novelty in restrictions on the publication of details of this nature. What makes the case a matter of concern for press freedom is that one of the causes of action cited and accepted by the court was for breach of the plaintiff’s privacy. This was in spite of the availability of a cause of action for breach of statutory duty. The NSW LRC’s consultation paper, released in May 2007, was specifically concerned with the proposed introduction of a statutory cause of action for breach of privacy. In its discussion paper, the ALRC also expressed support for a statutory cause of action for privacy, although the scope of such an action favoured by the ALRC is narrower than that advocated by the NSW LRC. The NSW LRC’s preferred cause of action encompasses conduct that falls within other areas of law, such as defamation and intellectual property. An aspect of the scope of the cause of action favoured by NSW LRC, which is of particular concern to the media, is that it appears to be seeking to subvert the reforms put in place by the uniform defamation laws making truth alone a defence, by introducing in another form the former requirement that to establish the truth defence it was necessary also to demonstrate a public interest in the material. It is difficult to assess the probable impact on freedom of speech of a tort of privacy at this preliminary stage in the process, where no draft legislation has yet been formulated.

The impact of ownership and control on access to information and images

In addition to the external threats posed to the press by governments, courts and corporations, press freedom is also affected by factors relating to ownership and control in the media market itself. The Broadcasting Services Amendment (Media Ownership) Act 2006 (Cth) removed the cross-media ownership restrictions and replaced them with a requirement for a minimum number of voices in each particular metropolitan or regional market. Given that the changes have only been in operation since January 2007 it is too early to make any meaningful assessment of the impact of the reforms, even though there have been substantial mergers and acquisitions within Australia’s media industry already. (See Chapter 3 on media ownership law changes and their impact for more details.)

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Issues relating to ownership and control, including contractual arrangements, have a significant impact on the right to publish images of sporting events. These issues affect access for journalists and photographers to sporting venues and the rights of organisations to broadcast video clips of sporting events. In late 2006 Cricket Australia threatened to exclude print journalists whose organisations had not agreed to restrict their use of on-line material. The restriction demanded was for no more than 30 seconds of footage to be shown no earlier than one hour after play. Additionally, organisations were to be allowed to post only twelve photos, to be updated daily. The restrictions on online journalists’ attendance at press conferences also remained. These issues were eventually resolved by negotiation and compromise agreements. Similarly, a compromise was eventually found in the dispute between News Limited, Telstra and the Rugby League over the use of video footage from NRL games on news websites. There have also been on-going concerns with the granting of exclusive rights to photograph AFL fixtures and possible attempts in the future to limit the number of photographers who have AFL access. A coalition of international news organisations has recently been in negotiation with the International Rugby Board over coverage of the 2007 World Cup. The Australian Press Council supports their actions in the name of access by all journalists to the reporting of news, whether it be political, economic or sports. There should be minimum interference with the collection and reporting of news, in words and images, whatever the form that news takes. The organisations presented a united front, sufficient to lead the Rugby authorities to reconsider whether they could afford to have all print media organisations worldwide off-side. The negotiations have led to some concessions particularly with regard to the publication of images. Questions related to on-line publication of match highlights remain to be solved. Nevertheless the game is not over. The likelihood is that international sporting organisations will continue their drive to obtain maximum revenue from sporting events.

Conclusion

The climate of restriction and obstruction of information by government in Australia has prevented journalists and publishers from keeping the Australian public informed about the actions and policies of its own elected bodies and other public institutions. The restrictions have been such as to lead to the formation of a unified coalition of Australia’s publishers and broadcasters, which has now launched a national “Public Right to Know” campaign. The coalition is seeking to obtain from governments a commitment to freedom of information, open government and protection of the right to free speech. The first step taken by the coalition has been funding an independent audit of access to information in Australia, headed by former NSW Ombudsman Irene Moss. The audit is due to be completed by November 2007.

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8. Notes, bibliography etc

Development of the Supplement The study was guided by a Steering Committee consisting of the Council’s Chairman, professor Ken McKinnon, Executive Secretary, Jack Herman, and Policy Officer, Inez Ryan. Persons responsible for researching and/or drafting various chapters are noted in the Contributors section at the front of this report. Harry Dillon (Charles Sturt University) and Associate Professor Ian Richards (University of South Australia), with the assistance of colleagues, developed and conducted the original research on the analysis of elections reported in chapter 6. They retain the rights to all the data they developed during the project and are free to publish further, more detailed analyses of those data. Drafts of the document were subjected to subbing and detailed editorial scrutiny by members of the Steering Committee. Editing has been the responsibility of Professor Ken McKinnon, with Jack Herman responsible for the final edit. The Council is very grateful for the unpaid work of industry and academic colleagues and partners, especially for the enhanced access to industry information that their availability ensured. The Press Council approved publication of the final document.

Chapter 2 The Press Council continues to rely on the data provided by Roy Morgan Research (readership) and the Audit Bureau of Circulation (circulation). It has used in this Supplement the data on website visits published by Neilsen/Net Ratings. It also thanks the Audit Bureau of Circulations and The Newspaper Works for their comments on, respectively, the new system of auditing circulation and its review of readership methodologies.

List of magazines used in circulation figures:

• Australian Woman’s Weekly, • Woman’s Day, • New Idea, • Reader’s Digest, • That’s Life, • TV Week,

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• Better Homes and Gardens, • Cleo, • Who, • Cosmopolitan, • NW, • Dolly, • Picture, • Time, • Girlfriend, • Marie Claire, • Australian Home & Garden, • Bulletin, • BRW and • Australian Good Taste

Chapter 4

Selected sources for “On-line news 2007”

APN News and Media, “Market Announcement”, 14 August 2007, http://www.apn. com.au Audit Bureau of Verification Services, “On-line advertising tops $1billion mark”, 12 February 2007, http://www.auditbureau.org.au/ABC/info_resource/frame.html Harris Poll, “TV Network News Top Source of News and Information Today”, Harris Interactive, 11 June 2007, http://www.harrisinteractive.com/harris_poll/index. asp?PID=768 Kirk, David, “The year ahead: the next steps in implementing our strategy”, Fairfax Media Announcement, 27 April 2007, http://www.fairfaxmedia.com.au Livesly, James, “Brisbane’s warm glow”, B & T Weekly, 29 June 2007 McIntyre, Paul, “On-line news rivals at war over top site”, Sydney Morning Herald, 9 August 2007 Ricketson, Matthew, “Papers trail as readers flock on-line for news”, the Age, 18 May 2007 West Australian Newspapers, “Presentation on 2006/7 results”, 6 August 2007, http:// www.thewest.com.au/default.aspx?MenuID=81

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Chapter 6

Notes on the methodology of the analyses

Harry Dillon adapted a method pioneered in election studies at Canada’s McGill University’s Institute for the Study of Canada and used in reports such as its analysis of the 2006 Canadian federal elections (http://media-observatory.mcgill.ca/pages/ 2006election.html). The Queensland report is based on a content analysis of all news, editorial and opinion pieces related to the election in the Courier-Mail and Sunday Mail. These stories are identified manually from the hard copies of each edition of the newspaper during the campaign. A small team of coders analysed each story. The vast majority of codes are purely objective. Coding identifies the first three parties mentioned in each article, in order; the same for leaders, and for issues. Thus the analysis tracks the total number of times that parties, leaders or issues are mentioned in election stories, as well as tracking ‘first mentions’. ‘First mentions’ are seen as a particularly valuable indication of the most prominent parties, leaders and issues. Articles are categorised as either primarily campaign-focused or primarily issue- focused. This gives a sense for how much coverage is focused on polling results, or stories about the campaign trail, versus policy issues. There is additionally a set of ‘tone’ codes - positive or negative - for parties and leaders. These codes necessarily involve more subjective judgment. To ensure as much reliability as possible, all coders go through practice coding sessions. The goal is to minimise the amount of subjectivity involved. There is a relatively well-defined set of decision rules for coding tone. The tone is based on the entire article and, most importantly, the default ‘tone’ for all party and leader mentions is neutral, and a mention has to be very clearly positive or negative in order to be coded as such. “Net tone” is measured by coding the tone (positive, negative, neutral) for every mention of a party or leader in the stories coded; taking the percentage of party/leader mentions that are positive, and subtracting the percentage that are negative. Associate Professor Ian Richards was supplied with a copy of the McGill research and methodology and also with hard copies of each edition of The Age and Sunday Age through the campaign. While the format of the Victorian report is different to that of the Queensland report, the analysis on which the reports were based is similar.

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Contributors

Harry Dillon Campbell Reid Lecturer in Journalism Editorial Operations Director Charles Sturt University News Limited Analysis of Queensland election Where are newsrooms going? – News perspective Steve Foley Deputy Editor Ian Richards (Development and Production) Associate Professor of Journalism The Age University of South Australia Where are newsrooms going? – the Age Analysis of Victorian election perspective Inez Ryan Jack Herman Policy Officer, Executive Secretary Australian Press Council Australian Press Council Press freedom 2007 Audience, Self-regulation, press ethics Lindsay Simpson and introduction to election studies Lecturer, Professor Ken McKinnon James Cook University Chairman, Blogging in Australian metropolitan Australian Press Council dailies Introduction to the Supplement Margaret Van Heekeren Sam North Associate Lecturer, Managing Editor, Charles Sturt University Herald Publications On-line News 2007 Media ownership

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