Cross-Media and Foreign Ownership Laws in Australia

Paper Summary:

This paper discusses the relaxation by the Australian authorities of cross-media and foreign ownership laws. The debate seems to balance out as to the number of the pros and cons and the weight of the arguments of each side. However, sifting through the arguments the paper shows that they meet halfway on the need to protect media against excess concentration of power and foreign influence. On these concerns, the Australian government seems to draw lessons from the media liberalization programs of other developed countries, which are allowing cross-media ownership and foreign participation up to more manageable limits and only in specific media areas where activities are calculated to pose lesser risks. The paper concludes that the problem is that, despite these safeguards, people will always look at media deregulation with suspicion and misgiving because of the sensitive nature of this industry.

From the Paper:

"After Lord Morley left journalism to join government service in the early stages of the development of media in UK, there is an oft-quoted remark made to him by Kennedy Jones, co-founder of the venerable Daily Mail. "You left journalism a profession. We made it a branch of commerce," Jones told Morley. The equally famous rejoinder was: "The more, the pity." One view in effect exults that media has evolved into a business proposition, where profit takes precedence over its traditionally loftier priorities. The other opinion looks with sadness at such commercialization of journalism, implying that this is inimical to public interest.
That pithy exchange from the past captures the essence of the present-day debate in Australia triggered by the government announcement of plans to deregulate media after 20 years of controls on foreign ownership and cross-media transactions. The Morley-Jones clash of views between the public service and business orientation of media deferred to old UK conditions, but the same hairsplitting still rings true today and continues to reverberate throughout the world as economic opportunities diminish and competition for scarce resources tighten up. Since almost all sectors of national economies have been served up for foreign interests in the universal drive to generate much-needed foreign investment, governments in many parts of the world, both developed and underdeveloped, are fixing their attention on the media industry as the last remaining enticement for foreign investors. As Australian Sen. Ron Walker puts it: "Media has become the last major industry begging for reform to bring it to the 21st century." By inference, the senator is batting for a new scheme that would keep Australian media in step with the times by allowing foreign investment into the arena."

More papers on Cross-Media and Foreign Ownership Laws in Australia:

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