2016-03-02
Any moves to change ownership rules governing Australia's media landscape should be focussed on expanding media diversity and supporting local content, the Australian Greens said today.
"The internet has dramatically changed the way Australians engage with media, and some of these regulations are decades old. That said, we need to be mindful of the government using a vague excuse of 'the internet' to change the rules to suit some of the most powerful media barons in Australia, the country with the most concentrated media ownership in the world," Australian Greens communications spokesperson Senator Scott Ludlam said today.
"It's too easy for the government to say that the internet has negated the need for any diversity protections in our media ownership framework, but the dominant players in print and broadcast media have successfully used their incumbency to cement their place at the top of Australia's online news media space as well.
"We need to make sure new entrants can compete, that existing players are not so dominant that new voices are crushed. We need to make sure local content is still being produced, and that Australian stories are still being told," Senator Ludlam said.
"Technological advances in streaming services and the like are being used as a reason to abolish the reach rule, but this only makes sense if there is a decent national broadband network to deliver these services."