In all the politicking and government attacks on the ABC for giving a platform to former terror suspect Zaky Mallah, the free speech debate has become confused.
Michelle Grattan talks to Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull about the government's new anti-online piracy measures, Zaky Mallah on ABC's Q&A, gay marriage and much more.
Zaky Mallah, the former terrorism suspect at the centre of the Q&A storm, travelled to the studio in a free bus the program puts on to take audience members from Sydney’s western suburbs
Q&A is in trouble again, following an unscripted intervention by a certain Zaky Mallah. In response to a comment by Coalition MP Steven Ciobo, Mallah – convicted of threatening to kill ASIO officials…
Whose “truth” best explains the implosion of the Rudd-Gillard Labor governments? Multiple “truths” are presented in the ABC’s The Killing Season as we continue to pick over that era’s debris.
The ABC’s decision to allow a well-known terrorist supporter to ask a question on Q&A was a mistake that potentially weakens the organisation’s position against its many enemies in high places.
Kevin Rudd has said there was “no way in the world” he would have moved against Julia Gillard in June 2013 unless Bill Shorten and his group were with him.
Media are important. Especially the media we trust. One might express the effect of a piece of journalism (J) about, say, a particular drug or food, as a factor of media authority (A), multiplied by the…
The following is an edited version of a submission to the Environment and Communications Legislation Committee with reference to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation Amendment (Local Content) Bill 2014…
In the recent ABC funding debate, many have questioned what the public broadcaster is for. What should its role be in Australia’s contemporary media landscape? Some argue that the ABC is a market-failure…
Are there lessons to be learnt from the success of the seminal Australian music program Countdown, and the ways in which it bolstered the Australian music industry during the 70s and 80s? Do Yourself a…
Australia’s long-running literary flagship program – Poetica on Radio National (RN) – is slated for axing in 2015. It’s one more casualty of the cuts to the ABC budget, announced last week. For the first…
2014 is turning into a grim year for public broadcasting. In June, Hubert Lacroix, the president of Canada’s public broadcaster CBC, announced an unprecedented series of job cuts. One-quarter of the staff…
Is the ABC trying to make itself redundant? Because that appears to be its strategy. Here’s why. The ABC is expensive. In 2013 it was allocated more than A$1 billion of taxpayer funds. The ABC claims…
With the polling bad, some of his strongest media backers excoriating him and his pants on fire over the “no cuts to the ABC” pledge, Tony Abbott has assured his Coalition partyroom that, bar a couple…
Brian McNair, Queensland University of Technology and Adam Swift, Queensland University of Technology
While Australia’s elected representatives argue over what then-opposition leader Tony Abbott meant when he promised “no cuts to the ABC, or SBS” the night before the last election, directly to the electorate…
ABC managing director Mark Scott undertook the unenviable task on Monday of wielding the axe to meet the Abbott government’s cut to the broadcaster’s funding. Government cutbacks to Australia’s publicly…
University of Canberra Vice-Chancellor Stephen Parker and Michelle Grattan discuss the week in politics including Malcolm Turnbull’s cuts to the ABC, higher education, the frission in the Palmer United…
Of the many media organisations making the transition towards digital, the ABC is one of the most advanced. So in the face of a $254 million budget, or “back offices” cut, as Communications Minister Malcolm…