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Our Shrinking Democracy

The need for an independent and fearless ABC has never been stronger. It is most obvious in the wake of the talkback/kickback revelations, but there are other trends in the public life of Australia that point to the ABC as our best hope for a healthy democracy.

A healthy democracy thrives on openness and accountability. And above all it depends on the scrutiny of our leaders in government, commerce, and communication. We rely on journalists in all the media to expose the workings of the powerful.

There are decisions being made, many of which have far-reaching ramifications in our society. But at present we see these as 'through a glass, darkly'. The circumstances which are throwing a fog over the workings of the powerful are many.

Take privatisation, for example. Australia leads the world in the rate of privatisation of its public utilities, and it has done this without scrutiny of evidence that there are any long term public benefits. Information about privatisation and outsourcing is shrouded in secrecy, mainly through Ôcommercial in confidenceÕ. For example, many prisons have been privatised, and through 'commercial confidentiality' we are prevented from learning what goes on in the prisons (and hospitals, energy industries and so on) and even whether there is a financial benefit to the state from privatisation. And not even the parliaments have access to this information.

Freedom of Information laws are being made subject to greater restriction and cost. If you want to access to documents through a Freedom of Information law, state or federal, you may find it has become a 'Cabinet document' by being produced fleetingly in the Cabinet room and so cannot be seen. Or you may not be able to afford the price-tag - sometimes thousands of dollars - that has been put on the search. The document you do get to see may have large slabs of print blacked out.

The three media giants in Australia - the organisations of Mr Murdoch and Mr Packer and the Fairfax press - have joined together to pressure for the relaxation or removal of media ownership laws. When 95% of the media is owned by the big three you won't even know what you are not being told.

The federal government lately made an attempt to licence individual journalists in the Canberra press gallery. Journalists who wished to remain in Parliament House as a part of the press corps were to be asked to sign a paper containing a form of licence for reporting; the licence could at any time be withdrawn by the government. That was one matter the media did not keep quiet on and it was dropped.

The public broadcaster, in its analytical and investigative role, has perhaps never been so vital. If the ABC does not carry out its commission to operate in the public interest who else will? The ABC is our only hope.

But it's in a double bind. If it is as bold, as investigative, as analytical as it should be, it will call down on its head more intimidation and budget cuts.

If it bows down to intimidation, it will not be operating in the public interest, without fear or favour.

It is not hyperbole to call the ABC the country's guardian, one of the few institutions in Australia that is still trusted.

JL

Our Public Watchdog - with teeth and muzzled

Within a week the ABC showed its best and its worst as a public broadcaster 'operating without fear or favour'. Stephen Feneley, an ABC broadcaster, writes in The Age about the unique role of Media Watch and about management's cave-in to a member of the ABC Board. The national broadcaster's managers have lost their nerve. Is it now Michael Kroger's ABC?

In fear, with favour

It's a lamentable comment on the state of broadcast journalism in Australia that the ABC's Media Watch is one of the few programs that still has the courage to take on the very powerful in our society.

For many journalists familiar with the John Laws approach to broadcasting, the revelation that he took money to push the banks' cause is really not so surprising. What is startling is that someone was bold enough to blow the whistle.

We have become so inured to the insidious chipping away of journalistic standards and ethics that we have ceased to be outraged by breaches of editorial independence.

It took Media Watch's stunning scoop to remind us that ethics are important, that editorial independence is fundamental to the free flow of information in a democratic society.

Media Watch's fearless style is not only an exception in the broadcast media at large but also, increasingly and sadly, within the ABC itself.

Media Watch is seen within the ABC as having some kind of special licence to be bold and robust. It is seen as taking risks that other programs would shy away from.

But in fact Media Watch is only doing what any program on a truly independent public broadcaster should be prepared to do: to reveal and report the truth, without fear or favour, even if that means revealing improper conduct within the ABC itself.

At the same time as Media Watch was lifting the lid on the banks' deal with Laws, another section of the ABC was being forced to bow to an assault on its editorial independence.

Last Friday, staff at 3LO were ordered, under threat of dismissal, to broadcast a retraction (or should it be better described as a clarification?) to an item concerning the businessman, Liberal Party powerbroker and ABC board member Michael Kroger.

A week earlier a guest political commentator had commented on the breakfast program about Kroger's political ambitions. Kroger disagreed with the commentator's remarks and contacted the station while he program was still on air, demanding a retraction. Production staff at 3LO offered Kroger the opportunity to go on air to put his side of the story. Kroger rejected the offer. Satisfied they had met their obligations of fairness, staff thought that would be an end to the matter. But Kroger took his case to ABC management.

Exactly who he contacted in management is unclear, but the result was a series of tense meetings between management and staff in which the issue of a retraction was hotly contested.

Staff insisted there were no grounds for a retraction. The opinion of the ABC legal department was that there was no legal issue at stake. Management persisted.

As the negotiations dragged on, staff who wanted to fight the issue on principle felt increasingly alienated. With their livelihoods on the line, they eventually surrendered to management's demands.

The crucial issue in this whole sorry affair is this: would management have been so keen to succumb to Michael Kroger's wishes if he was not a member of the board? Would management have bowed to Kroger had he not been such a trenchant and outspoken friend of a seemingly hostile government?

ABC management has lost its nerve; its confidence has been rattled by a relentless campaign of harassment by the likes of Kroger and the Communications Minister, Richard Alston.

In fending off conservative charges of editorial bias, no one in ABC management has bothered to state the bleeding obvious: that Labor when it was in power federally also accused the ABC of bias and was not above intimidating ABC broadcasters. Which only goes to show that if we have managed to annoy both sides, we must be doing our job.

In this case Kroger stared down ABC management, and management blinked. The alleged errors of fact in the offending comment that led to the retraction were trivial (Kroger's correct title when he was a Liberal Party officeholder; how many times he had sought preselection). How would management cope if the matter was more serious, involving, say, a powerful figure in a great scandal?

This experience has shown ABC staff that they cannot rely on management to back their professional judgment in the face of powerful and determined outside pressure.

The ABC, with diminishing justification, is held up as one of the last bastions of true editorial independence in broadcasting. But if management can't jealously guard that independence, then the ABC will lose the one asset that makes it worthy of taxpayer support.

Stephen Feneley, arts presenter on the ABC