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1 Senate Environment and Communications References Senate Environment and Communications References Committee Enquiry The State of Media Diversity, Independence and Reliability in Australia and the Impact that this has on Public Interest Journalism and Democracy Submission Contents 1. Introduction ……………………………………………………………………….. 1 2. Is There a Murdoch Media Monopoly? …………………………………………… 3 2.1 The Australian Media Landscape ………………………………………………... 3 2.2 The Allegation of Political Influence and the Issue of Climate Denial ………... 10 2.3 Cause and Effect? The Formation of Individuals’ Opinions …………………… 23 2.4 Should there be a Royal Commission? ………………………………………… 26 3. Democracy and the Media ……………………………………………………… 32 3.1 A Brief Survey of the History of Democracy ……………………...................... 33 3.2 What Democracy? ……………………………………………………………… 55 3.3 An Information Society? ……………………………………………………….. 71 3.4 The Australian Culture War ……………………………………………………. 76 3.5 The Principle of Tolerance ……………………………………………………... 86 3.6 The Role of ‘The Fourth Estate’ in Democracy ………………………………... 92 3.7 The ABC ……………………………………………………………………… 105 3.8 The Education of Journalists – and of every Australian ……………………… 112 4. The Freedom of the Press ……………………………………………………… 120 4.1 The American Constitution …………………………………………………… 130 4.2 The Supreme Court Decision in the Matter of the ‘Pentagon Papers’ ………. 131 4.3 An Australian Bill of Rights ………………………………………………… 136 4.4 Alliance for Journalists’ Freedom White Paper on Press Freedom in Australia 137 5. Summary ……………………………………………………..………………… 140 1. Introduction 1.1 Terms of the enquiry: 1 The state of media diversity, independence and reliability in Australia and the impact that this has on public interest journalism and democracy, including: a. the current state of public interest journalism in Australia and any barriers to Australian voters’ ability to access reliable, accurate and independent news; b. the effect of media concentration on democracy in Australia; c. the impact of Australia’s media ownership laws on media concentration in Australia; d. the impact of significant changes to media business models since the advent of online news and the barriers to viability and profitability of public interest news services; e. the impact of online global platforms such as Facebook, Google and Twitter on the media industry and sharing of news in Australia; f. the barriers faced by small, independent and community news outlets in Australia; g. the role that a newswire service plays in supporting diverse public interest journalism in Australia; h. the state of local, regional and rural media outlets in Australia; i. the role of government in supporting a viable and diverse public interest journalism sector in Australia; and j. any other related matters. 1.2 I am not a media analyst or commentator, and I am not qualified to offer more than a personal assessment of the majority of areas to be considered by this enquiry. Section 2 below will consider media-related questions. 1.3 As this enquiry is concerned with the relationship between the media and democracy, it is necessary to define how this should be understood. In my opinion, neither government nor journalists nor the general public in Australia display a satisfactory understanding of the historical evolution and principles of democracy. The majority of this submission is concerned with the questions ‘What is democracy?’, ‘Do we have democracy in Australia?’, ‘What is the role of the media within a democracy?’, and ‘Is democracy in Australia seriously threatened by any section of the media in Australia?’ 2 1.4 Democracy does not consist merely in a given system of elections, parliament, and law in its actual operation, or in an absolute, unaccountable and inviolate sovereignty of government over the people: it consists in the maintenance of the well- being, prosperity, dignity, autonomy and freedom of the entire population without exception; the direct participation of the people in their own government; and the permanent accountability of government to the people as their delegated representatives. 1.5 The role of the media should be to serve as a tribune of the people (tribunus plebis), if necessary against government, in order to protect democracy from potential abuse and the weakening of it by government; that is what the traditional designation of the media as ‘the fourth estate’ means. Where that in fact occurs, the last and the present Coalition governments in particular have frequently sought to intimidate, criminalise, silence or otherwise weaken the media platforms responsible and their sources, not to respect and protect them. 1.6 This submission argues that the greatest “cancer” on democracy in Australia is not a section of the media, but government itself. 1.7 Until all Australians, including all politicians, have an adequate understanding of what democracy is, and should be, and agree unconditionally to respect and protect that, there is little benefit in questioning any alleged threat to democracy – what democracy? – that may allegedly be posed by the media. 1.8 This submission goes to some lengths to argue for a conception of democracy and of the role of the media within it, because such an argument is generally lacking in politics and in public debate. This argument needs to be made, and seriously considered, if we are to arrive at an adequate resolution of this matter. 2. Is There a Murdoch Media Monopoly? 2.1 The Australian Media Landscape 2.1.1 A ‘monopoly’ is defined in economic terms as a market structure with a single seller, whereas at law, it is defined as a business entity with significant market power. This need not be a large business as long as it is able to control and manipulate a market, including the charging of high prices. It is a situation characterised by a lack of competition. This may also consist in multiple companies apparently independent but all owned and controlled by one individual and/or parent company. Rupert 3 Murdoch’s News Corps may be considered legally as a monopoly, but not in economic terms. 2.1.2 A business monopoly is inconsistent with the economic theory of competition, which requires a reasonable diversity of actors in an economic sector that are independent of one another, that do not collude to manipulate or dominate a sector, within which there is genuine competition that delivers the ostensible benefits of quality and affordability of goods and services. In Australia we arguably have more the theory or the illusion than the practice of competition. This is also evident in other sectors such as the dominance of Coles and Woolworths as supermarket chains; that dominance is not desirable, it has had enormous adverse effects on supply chains, it should be reduced, and the scale of that dominance would not be legal in many OECD countries. 2.1.3 It is not clear to me that any action by News Corp is directly responsible for any alleged effects that its majority market share may have either on the media landscape or on the quality of democracy, including public debate, in Australia. 2.1.4 News Corp controls 64.2% of print media in national and capital city circulation. Nine Entertainment owns 26.4%. The most-read national daily is News Corp’s The Australian, with Nine’s Australian Financial Review enjoying less than half of its circulation; this pattern is replicated for weekend nationals, with Schwartz Media’s The Saturday Paper approximately comparable with the AFR. 2.1.5 The ownership of capital dailies is more complex, and varies from state to state. Nine owns The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, both reputable mastheads. It would require further research to establish the ownership and relative importance of regional and local newspapers, and whether Murdoch has been responsible for the closure of regional papers. The Guardian is also a crucial publication, although its major presence is now online rather than print. There should be at least two daily newspapers in every capital city, not including The Australian, which are not owned by the same corporation. It is obviously not desirable that News Corp should own the only state newspaper or all state newspapers in any state or territory, but in some states this is the case. There are multiple other online daily news and commentary outlets, for example, The Conversation. 2.1.6 Media concentration in Australia is exceptionally high in international comparison, and earlier restrictions have been lifted in recent decades (e.g. on limits 4 of foreign ownership in 2007); which governments have been responsible for allowing this level of concentration, and why? It would be reasonable to consider bringing Australia into line with other OECD countries in more strictly regulating permissible percentages of ownership and, in particular, reducing News Corp’s market share to not more than one third (33%). 2.1.7 Australian Associated Press is clearly an essential news service and its independence and survival should be protected; it should also be capable of employing more than 80 editors nationally. To the extent that all other media coverage in Australia depends on this service, government should consider ways of ensuring its survival and continued viability. It should not be owned by one company or magnate. Its current status as a consortium of investors who are in principle committed to quality independent media coverage is positive, but the threat to it posed both by its uncertain financial viability and by a News Corp rival (NCA Newswire) need to be addressed. Were AAP to be shut down and replaced by NCA Newswire, then the media landscape in Australia would be seriously compromised, in view of the dependence of all other media outlets on such a source, and the clear bias of News Corp. 2.1.8 Statistics for audiences of the evening television news broadcasts, and the relative reach of Sky News and Nine in particular would need to be clarified. The ABC is the other important broadcaster in this context, providing a number of current affairs programmes in addition to the news, and also operating regional broadcasting and an online presence.
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