BY CAM PARKER
SYDNEY — Federal communications minister Richard Alston has told the ABC to "cut its cloth" to cover the shortfall in government funds for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. He said the ABC should drop some of its "esoteric" programs and increase its audience share instead of asking for more money.
Alston refuses to spell out which "esoteric" programs he thinks should be dropped. To do so, claims Alston, would be "political interference". This is hypocrisy. The federal Coalition government has stacked the ABC board with like-minded people — like ex-Victorian Liberal Party president Michael Kroger and Donald McDonald, a close buddy of prime minister John Howard — and systematically defunded the organisation since it came to power because it is politically opposed to independent public broadcasting.
New managing director Jonathan Shier — a former Young Liberals official — has proposed cutting funds to the news and current affairs departments by close to $4 million. This is clearly political interference in the running of the ABC.
It is the federal Coalition government, through its appointments to the ABC, that is driving ABC decision-making. It is untrue to claim, as Alston does, that "the ABC runs the ABC".
On Channel Nine's Sunday program on October 29, it was revealed that Swiss merchant bank Credit Suisse First Boston has prepared an "unsolicited" report, forwarded to the federal department of finance, that recommends the privatisation of parts of the ABC — the ABC shops and ABC Online were mentioned by Sunday.
ABC board member Michael Kroger has been a long and vocal proponent of privatising ABC Online. Alston told Sunday: "We wouldn't have any difficulty with the ABC board reaching its own judgements about how they should operate, as long as it's consistent with their charter obligations."
The British Guardian revealed on October 30 that Credit Suisse has gone into partnership with Microsoft to provide online share trading and personal finance facilities to Europe. Microsoft is part owner, along with Channel Nine owner Kerry Packer, of ninemsn.com.au. The sale of ABC Online would break up one of ninemsn's key competitors, not to mention give it an opportunity to win some of ABC Online's 6.5 million weekly visitors.
Web of intrigue
Shier's plans for ABC Online, one of the most popular Australian web sites, provide an example of his broader vision for the ABC. Since publishing material on the web has been deemed by the government as not being broadcasting, the ABC is not hindered by legislation which prohibits advertising on the ABC.
Although this does not necessarily mean that banner ads will start appearing on ABC web pages, it will mean more co-productions with other organisations, more of an emphasis on web sites that will encourage people to buy ABC products and the "on-selling" of ABC programs and content to other organisations.
Under Shier's plan, ABC Online has been granted an extra $2 million (equivalent to the amount stripped from ABC radio) to build up its e-commerce expertise and to increase its coverage of education and health issues.
ABC Online is being reorganised, with e-commerce at its centre. ABC Online's new head Lynley Marshall's main internet qualifications come from buying and selling advertising for New Zealand's Radio Network's BlueChilli.
Marshall stated in a speech (titled "Selling content as a by-product of your core business"), reported by the October 18 Australian, that the ABC would continue to sell its online content, especially news, to web corporations, including Yahoo, LookSmart, Sanford Securities and Virtual Content.
Rationalisation
Shier has also raised the possibility of a merger with SBS. In what could have easily been taken from a One Nation manifesto, he said, "I do not think you ring-fence a group of Australians and say there's a different broadcasting service for them."
This could be an opportunity to bring advertising to the ABC via the back door, as the underfunded SBS has numerous sponsorship deals. Would a merger of the two services, under the guise of rationalisation, mean similar "unobtrusive" advertising for the ABC?
Certainly marketing companies are eyeing the ABC as a potential carrier of advertising. Media Week, an advertising industry journal, has suggested ads for four-wheel drives in Bush Tucker Man, and even Microsoft ads during the 7.30 Report!
To make ratings the criteria for funding, as Alston does, ignores the legislative obligations of the ABC: to inform, educate and entertain. Channel Nine, for example, spends around $750 million annually on its TV news, current affairs and sports programs alone — $200 million dollars more than the entire combined transmission, television, radio and online arms of the ABC.
What the commercial stations charge to air advertisements eventually adds to the prices paid by consumers. Everyone ends up paying for advertising, and no-one is able to complain about it. Under ABC legislation, every citizen has the right to question how "their" money is spent at the ABC, thus making it arguably the most accountable media Australia has at the moment.
Another of Shier's plans is to seek out funding from other government departments like the CSIRO and state and federal government health and education departments. This would undoubtedly undermine the quality of programming at the ABC. Rather than have programs developed against certain stringent independent criteria, programs will be little better than government propaganda. State and federal health and education departments too have been hit heavily by budget cuts over the
years.
Reverse the cuts!
ABC funding has been reduced by successive Labor and Coalition governments. Since the early 1990s, a total of $120 million has been cut from the ABC. In 1996, when the Coalition came to power, an extra $55 million was sliced. State-based symphony orchestras were cast adrift and the transmission tower, used for Radio Australia broadcasts into the Asia and the Pacific, was leased to a fundamentalist Christian broadcasting organisation. ABC staff were even "sub-contracted" to the Sydney Olympics Broadcasting Organisation in a not-too successful revenue-raising exercise.
As ABC News and Current Affairs prepares to sack sound and lighting technicians, camera crews and editors, federal Labor communications spokesperson Stephen Smith has only committed his party to offering the ABC an extra $100 million over three years.
In February, Shier will have been in his job for a year and will have the option to exercise the "opt-out" clause in his contract. That will be an ideal time for the Australian people (the true "shareholders" of the ABC) to express no confidence in his management.
Large nationally coordinated days of action could be organised around the following demands: that the government spell out where its cuts to the ABC be will made; no staff cuts; and for an independent public inquiry into political interference in the workings of the ABC.
[Cam Parker is a member of the Democratic Socialist Party and an ABC Online web producer/developer and can be contacted at <camparker@cia.com.au>.]<~>