tag:theconversation.com,2011:/ca/topics/editorial-independence-56671/articleseditorial independence – The Conversation2023-08-23T03:23:05Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2120182023-08-23T03:23:05Z2023-08-23T03:23:05ZAs ABC chair, Ita Buttrose stood up for the broadcaster’s independence. It’s time others did the same<p>Ita Buttrose <a href="https://www.theage.com.au/business/companies/ita-buttrose-will-not-seek-second-term-as-abc-chair-20230822-p5dye6.html">has announced</a> she will not seek a second term as ABC chair, which means her term will expire in March 2024. </p>
<p>Buttrose’s appointment as chair of the ABC in February 2019 was tainted by being a “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/2020/jan/09/two-media-executives-and-lawyer-passed-over-for-ita-buttrose-as-abc-chair-foi-confirms">captain’s pick</a>” on the part of then Prime Minister Scott Morrison, yet at crucial moments she was to prove a strong defender of the ABC’s independence against the predations of his government.</p>
<p>It was the issue that came to define her tenure. It had also brought down her predecessor, <a href="https://theconversation.com/abc-inquiry-finds-board-knew-of-trouble-between-milne-and-guthrie-but-did-nothing-114752">Justin Milne</a>. The manner of her appointment continued the Coalition’s contemptuous disregard of the independent merit-based selection process for ABC board appointments, and she inherited a board stained by political patronage.</p>
<p>Four of the seven non-executive directors already there had been <a href="https://scribepublications.com.au/books-authors/books/who-needs-the-abc-9781922310927">appointed outside the merit system</a> by Mitch Fifield as minister for communication.</p>
<p>Buttrose herself put ABC independence at the centre of her commitments. In a sharp departure from Milne’s temporising approach to government pressure, <a href="https://about.abc.net.au/statements/statement-by-ita-buttrose-abc-chair-on-the-publics-right-to-know">Buttrose stated</a> soon after her appointment: </p>
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<p>I will fight any attempts to muzzle the national broadcaster or interfere with its obligations to the Australian public. Independence is not exercised by degrees. It is absolute. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/ita-buttroses-appointment-as-new-abc-chair-a-promising-step-in-the-right-direction-112683">Ita Buttrose's appointment as new ABC chair a promising step in the right direction</a>
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<p>Within months, this declaration was put to the test when the Australian Federal Police raided the ABC headquarters in Sydney as part of an investigation into who had leaked information about alleged war crimes by Australian soldiers in Afghanistan. Buttrose <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-06-07/ita-buttrose-says-afp-raid-on-abc-was-designed-to-intimidate/11189200">attacked the police raid</a> as a clear attempt to intimidate journalists. </p>
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<p>In November 2020, it was put to the test again. Four Corners broadcast a program called <a href="https://iview.abc.net.au/video/NC2003H040S00">Inside the Canberra Bubble</a>. In it Rachelle Miller, a former staffer to acting Immigration Minister Alan Tudge, said she had had an affair with him. She also alleged that Christian Porter, who was to become attorney-general, had been seen cuddling a staffer of another minister in a Canberra bar in 2017. Porter denied the claim.</p>
<p>On November 30, Minister for Communications Paul Fletcher wrote to Buttrose demanding answers within 14 days to 15 questions mostly about the program’s impartiality.</p>
<p>On the 14th day, December 14 2020, Buttrose <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/2020/dec/14/abc-chair-ita-buttrose-accuses-government-of-political-interference-in-draft-letter-to-paul-fletcher">sent him a reply</a>, hitting back hard. She dismissed the 15 questions and accused the government of a pattern of behaviour that “smacks of political interference”. </p>
<p>The ABC’s managing director, David Anderson, subsequently <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/extreme-and-unrelenting-abc-four-corners-team-claim-pressure-to-stop-federal-mps-investigation-20201109-p56cu">told a Senate estimates committee hearing</a> that Buttrose had seen the program before it went to air and had supported the decision to broadcast it.</p>
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<p>Then in late February 2021, Four Corners <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-02-26/pm-senators-afp-told-historical-rape-allegation-cabinet-minister/13197248">broke a related story</a> saying the Australian Federal Police had been notified of a letter sent to Scott Morrison detailing an alleged historical rape by a cabinet minister in the federal government. </p>
<p>In early March, Christian Porter <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-03-03/christian-porter-denies-historical-rape-allegation/13206972">outed himself</a> as the cabinet minister referred to, and strongly denied the allegation.</p>
<p>He sued the ABC for defamation but the ABC defended it vigorously and he <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-05-31/abc-christian-porter-discontinue-defamation/100179392">discontinued the action</a>. </p>
<p>In late 2021, Buttrose went on the attack again, this time over an attempt by Liberal Senator Andrew Bragg to launch a Senate inquiry into the ABC’s complaints process, while an internal inquiry into the same issue was already on foot. She <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/listen/programs/radionational-breakfast/abc-chair-ita-buttrose-andrew-bragg-political-interference/13631096">called it out</a> as a “partisan political exercise” and Bragg’s effort foundered. </p>
<p>It is clear that far from behaving like a Liberal Party stooge, Buttrose has stood up courageously for the ABC’s independence, as she said she would. That will be an important part of her legacy.</p>
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<p>Yet she has not been able to imbue the organisation’s editorial leadership with the same spirit. This was shown in two recent cases where editorial independence was again under attack.</p>
<p>The first concerned the coverage of King Charles III’s coronation in May. For about 45 minutes in the lead-up to the ceremony, the ABC ran a panel discussion about the contemporary relevance of the British monarchy to Australian lives. The nine guests on the program included Stan Grant, a Wiradjuri man and celebrated ABC journalist.</p>
<p>The panel discussion provoked a backlash and drew about 1,800 complaints to the ABC. After investigating these, the ABC ombudsman found the program had not breached the ABC’s editorial policies.</p>
<p>Much of the backlash focused on Grant, and in late May he stepped aside from his role as moderator of Q+A on ABC television, <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-05-19/stan-grant-media-target-racist-abuse-coronation-coverage-enough/102368652">writing in his ABC column</a>: </p>
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<p>No one at the ABC — whose producers invited me onto their coronation coverage as a guest — has uttered one word of public support. Not one ABC executive has publicly refuted the lies written or spoken about me. I don’t hold any individual responsible; this is an institutional failure. </p>
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<p>He has since left the ABC and taken up a position at Monash University.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/stan-grants-treatment-is-a-failure-of-abcs-leadership-mass-media-and-debate-in-this-country-206080">Stan Grant's treatment is a failure of ABC's leadership, mass media, and debate in this country</a>
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<p>It was not until Grant announced his decision to step back from Q+A that the head of the ABC’s news division, Justin Stevens, finally <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/may/22/abc-news-chief-regrets-not-defending-stan-grant-earlier-amid-racist-attacks">made a public statement</a> in Grant’s defence, apologising for not having done so “ten days earlier”. Anderson’s <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/may/21/abc-boss-apologises-to-stan-grant-after-host-said-he-felt-unsupported-in-face-of-racist-attacks">apology to Grant</a> in a staff email had come only one day sooner.</p>
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<p>The second case concerns Nicole Chvastek, an experienced journalist who, until March, had presented ABC Radio Victoria’s Statewide Drive program for almost a decade.</p>
<p>Her career ended abruptly in July after a 17-month saga set in motion by a complaint from a National Party politician, Darren Chester, telephoned directly to a senior ABC executive in Sydney. It concerned the way Chvastek had covered the Morrison government’s <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/mar/19/against-the-foil-of-the-morrison-government-dominic-perrottets-flood-response-has-been-pragmatic">handling of flood relief payments</a> to victims in northern NSW: those who lived in the National seat of Page got more, initially, than those in the neighbouring Labor-held seat of Richmond.</p>
<p>The details of Chvastek’s case have been <a href="https://www.crikey.com.au/2023/08/03/nicole-chvastek-abc-directive/">traversed elsewhere</a>. It remains only for me to declare that for eight and a half years I was a guest on her program discussing media issues, and the charge of misconduct arising from Chester’s complaint was not upheld.</p>
<p>In both cases, at the most senior levels of ABC editorial leadership there was a failure of an editor’s first responsibility, which is to provide a safe environment within which staff can do good journalism.</p>
<p>There have been many <a href="https://www.abcfriendsvic.org.au/demoralisation_liberal_party_strategy_on_the_abc">analyses</a> of how nine years of Coalition government attacks demoralised the ABC. But with Buttrose’s departure now on the horizon, it is time for others at the top to stand up.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/212018/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>I was a guest on Nicole Chvastek's ABC Radio Victoria Statewide Drive program for eight and a half years discussing media issues. I declare this in the article itself.</span></em></p>Buttrose’s tenure as chair was tainted by being a Morrison government ‘captain’s pick’, but she nonetheless defended the ABC against tat government’s predations.Denis Muller, Senior Research Fellow, Centre for Advancing Journalism, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1897692022-09-02T02:59:19Z2022-09-02T02:59:19ZThe merger of TVNZ and RNZ needs to build trust in public media – 3 things the law change must get right<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/482169/original/file-20220831-24-mu34hk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">GettyImages</span> </figcaption></figure><p>With only six days left for submissions to the select committee examining the <a href="https://www.parliament.nz/en/pb/bills-and-laws/bills-proposed-laws/document/BILL_125298/aotearoa-new-zealand-public-media-bill">Aotearoa New Zealand Public Media Bill</a>, it is becoming clear this crucial piece of legislation has some significant shortcomings. These will need attention before it passes into law.</p>
<p>The eventual act of parliament will officially merge Radio New Zealand (RNZ) and Television New Zealand (TVNZ) into a new non-profit, autonomous Crown entity. Supporters, including <a href="https://www.beehive.govt.nz/release/public-media-entity-bill-gets-first-reading-house">Broadcasting Minister Willie Jackson</a>, argue the new organisation will help strengthen public media. Others have <a href="https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/300662914/broadcasting-minister-open-to-discussing-independence-of-new-public-media-entity">expressed concerns</a> about the new entity’s likely independence, given its reliance on government funding.</p>
<p>TVNZ chief executive Simon Power echoed those concerns earlier this week. He <a href="https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/129734339/tvnz-boss-supportive-of-merger-with-rnz-but-says-law-change-poorly-constructed">strongly criticised</a> the bill’s current provisions for statutory and editorial independence:</p>
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<p>I am not worried about that kind of influence from this government or the next government. I just think if the legislation is to endure it has to be robust enough to withstand different types of governments over time.</p>
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<p>Power is right to warn against complacency about media freedom. While New Zealand still ranks highly in the <a href="https://rsf.org/en/index">World Press Freedom Index</a> (11th out of 180 countries), there have been times in the past when governments have manipulated or directly censored local news media to suit their own political agendas.</p>
<p>In the current age of “fake news” and disinformation, we need to be especially vigilant. While there are good aspects to the proposed law, it fails to adequately deal with several pressing contemporary issues.</p>
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<span class="caption">Broadcasting and Media Minister Willie Jackson says the Aotearoa New Zealand Public Media Bill will strengthen public media.</span>
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<h2>Trust in government and media</h2>
<p>As last year’s <a href="https://informedfutures.org/wp-content/uploads/Sustaining-Aotearoa-New-Zealand-as-a-cohesive-society.pdf">Sustaining Aotearoa as a Cohesive Society</a> report highlighted, trust in government and media, and the social cohesion it creates, is a fragile thing. What can take decades to build can fragment if it isn’t nurtured.</p>
<p>According to some global measures, this <a href="https://www.edelman.com/trust/2022-trust-barometer">trust is declining</a>. New Zealand still ranks higher than the <a href="https://www.oecd.org/gov/gov-at-a-glance-2021-new-zealand.pdf">OECD average</a>, but distrust is growing here. The Auckland University of Technology’s Journalism, Media and Democracy (<a href="https://www.jmadresearch.com/">JMAD</a>) research centre reports that people’s trust in the news they consume <a href="https://www.jmadresearch.com/trust-in-news-in-new-zealand">dropped by 10%</a> between 2020 and 2022. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/crisis-disintegration-and-hope-only-urgent-intervention-can-save-new-zealands-media-139299">Crisis, disintegration and hope: only urgent intervention can save New Zealand's media</a>
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<p>At the same time, the speed and reach of propaganda, misinformation and disinformation have <a href="https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full/10.1098/rsos.201199">increased dramatically</a>, as witnessed during the COVID pandemic. New Zealand was not immune, as the <a href="https://thedisinfoproject.org/about-us/">Disinformation Project</a> has shown. Unreliable and untrustworthy information <a href="https://thedisinfoproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/tdp-2020-paper.pdf">spread almost as quickly</a> as the virus itself, with an <a href="https://thedisinfoproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/The-murmuration-of-information-disorders-May-2022-Report-FULL-VERSION.pdf">unprecedented spike</a> during the protest at parliament earlier this year.</p>
<p>Finally, journalism continues to be a dangerous profession. Over 1,200 media professionals worldwide were <a href="https://news.un.org/en/story/2021/11/1104622">killed for doing their jobs</a> between 2006 and 2020. Online violence against <a href="https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000377223">women journalists</a> in particular is on the rise. New Zealand journalists have also found themselves the target of <a href="https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/mediawatch/audio/2018820263/the-risks-of-reporting-displays-ofdiscontent-and-amplifying-aggro">increased levels of animosity</a>.</p>
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<h2>What the new law needs</h2>
<p>Rebuilding trust in the public media starts with firmly enshrining their independence in law. The proposed charter promises the new entity will demonstrate editorial independence, impartiality and balance. This is a good start, but it is only one of ten principles. </p>
<p>This key principle (and ways to measure it) should stand alone in the new law to create a bulwark against any rising fear that governments, either directly or by manipulating budgets and appointments, have undue influence.</p>
<p>The commitment to independence should also be reinforced by ensuring some seats on the proposed entity’s board are reserved for representatives of parliamentary opposition parties. Independent annual review of the entity’s independence and integrity should also be required.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/in-an-age-of-digital-disinformation-dropping-level-1-media-studies-in-nz-high-schools-is-a-big-mistake-151475">In an age of digital disinformation, dropping level 1 media studies in NZ high schools is a big mistake</a>
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<p>Second, there needs to be a clearer commitment to integrity of information, beyond the existing standards of the news being reliable, accurate, comprehensive, balanced and impartial. Recognising the threat of misinformation and disinformation, and developing ways to counter it, should be a core part of the new entity’s remit. As the bill stands, it is only part of four considerations related to one of several “objectives”.</p>
<p>And thirdly, the law must recognise the independence of journalists and the need to protect them. It’s something of an anomaly that a bill to <a href="https://www.legislation.govt.nz/bill/member/2021/0069/latest/LMS554019.html?src=qs">protect journalists’ sources</a> was put before parliament (although subsequently <a href="https://www.parliament.nz/resource/en-NZ/SCR_125990/fe12ea2e03693f316c517f1a7c3f9eb81e37b065">withdrawn</a>), while journalists themselves don’t enjoy similar protections.</p>
<p>The new public media entity could lead the way in lobbying on behalf of all journalists to ensure those protections, and the tools journalists require to be an effective fourth estate, are consistent with best international practice.</p>
<p>If the law in its final form reflects these fundamental principles, it will go a long way to allaying legitimate concerns about the future independence and integrity of public media in Aotearoa New Zealand.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/189769/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Major public media reform in New Zealand is coming at the same time as trust in government and media declines. The proposed new law needs to make political and editorial independence a top priority.Alexander Gillespie, Professor of Law, University of WaikatoClaire Breen, Professor of Law, University of WaikatoLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1463942020-09-17T04:27:27Z2020-09-17T04:27:27Z‘Science is political’: Scientific American has endorsed Joe Biden over Trump for president. Australia should take note<p>In an unprecedented step, prestigious science publication <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Scientific-American">Scientific American</a> has <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/scientific-american-endorses-joe-biden/">launched</a> a scathing attack on President Donald Trump and endorsed his opponent, Democratic candidate Joe Biden, in the upcoming US election. It’s the first presidential endorsement in the magazine’s 175-year history.</p>
<p>To this, we say: about bloody time! As we’ve <a href="https://theconversation.com/gentlemens-rules-are-out-scientists-its-time-to-unleash-the-beast-729">noted before</a>:</p>
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<p>Science is political. The science we do is inherently shaped by the funding landscape of government and the problems and issues of society. This means that to have any influence on how science is organised and funded in Australia (or the US or any other country), we as scientists and science communicators must act in ways that matter in the arena of politics.</p>
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<p>It’s now more critical than ever, as the editors at Scientific American clearly lay out, that the people who are actually knowledgeable about the world’s crises <a href="https://theconversation.com/when-politicians-listen-to-scientists-we-all-benefit-74443">speak out and represent</a> that knowledge (or “<a href="https://medium.com/the-science-collective/individual-intelligence-vs-collective-wisdom-ddce5fe42ed">collective wisdom</a>”) in public, out loud and with their names attached.</p>
<p><a href="https://edition.cnn.com/videos/politics/2020/09/14/trump-wildfires-climate-change-coronavirus-collins-dnt-lead-vpx.cnn">Under Trump</a>, science isn’t just ignored. It is lampooned and <a href="https://www.ucsusa.org/resources/attacks-on-science">directly attacked</a>, especially on issues such as <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-46351940">climate change</a> and the coronavirus pandemic. This actively threatens <a href="https://theintercept.com/2020/04/02/is-donald-trump-criminally-responsible-for-coronavirus-deaths/">the lives</a> (and livelihoods) of not just millions of Americans, but countless others around the world. </p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Throughout the coronavirus pandemic, Trump has shown blatant disregard for scientific recommendations and has actively peddled misinformation, such as when he suggested UV light could be used to treat patients.</span></figcaption>
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<h2>Respect the messenger</h2>
<p>In the past, <a href="https://theconversation.com/distrust-of-experts-happens-when-we-forget-they-are-human-beings-76219">it has been suggested</a> scientists who comment beyond their specific, narrow sphere of reach by delving into politics are tainting their credibility – perhaps even behaving unethically. </p>
<p>But as we now stare down the barrel of an ongoing global pandemic (and relentless climate change continuing in the background), to remain quiet on the politics is not just unethical, but actively dangerous.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/5-big-environment-stories-you-probably-missed-while-youve-been-watching-coronavirus-135364">5 big environment stories you probably missed while you've been watching coronavirus</a>
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<p>The argument that science is somehow tainted by offering policy or political opinions is an idea <a href="https://theconversation.com/distrust-of-experts-happens-when-we-forget-they-are-human-beings-76219">whose time has long gone</a>. </p>
<p>Who is better placed to add valuable weight to public debates about the key problems we’re facing, than those who represent the voice of evidence, reason and debate (such as Scientific American)? </p>
<p>As one of us <a href="https://jcom.sissa.it/archive/16/01/JCOM_1601_2017_C01">has previously argued</a>, in Australia we should encourage scientists and science communicators to:</p>
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<p>Become more active in challenging the status quo, or to help support those who wish to by engendering a professional environment that encourages risk-taking and speaking out in public about critical social issues.</p>
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<h2>It’s the principle, not the votes</h2>
<p>Scientific American is not entirely alone in pushing for the involvement of scientists in public policy and action. Other reputable publications have taken similar stances in the past. </p>
<p>In 2017, <a href="https://www.nature.com/news/why-researchers-should-resolve-to-engage-in-2017-1.21236">Nature argued</a> “debates over climate change and genome editing present the need for researchers to venture beyond their comfort zones to engage with citizens”. Earlier in 2012, <a href="https://www.nature.com/news/a-vote-for-science-1.11634">Nature explicitly endorsed</a> Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama over Republican challenger Mitt Romney. </p>
<p>In Australia, our news publications have a tradition of <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/2018/sep/20/very-australian-coup-murdoch-turnbull-political-death-news-corps">endorsing political parties</a> at federal elections, but our science publishing landscape has typically remained agnostic. </p>
<p>Peak bodies such as the Australian Academy of Science, and Science and Technology Australia, have <a href="https://www.science.org.au/academy-newsletter/australian-academy-science-newsletter-104/academy-urges-political-parties">commented</a> on the political decision-making process, but have rarely been so forthright as the Scientific American’s recent editorial.</p>
<p>Not only should scientists take a stand, they should also be encouraged and professionally acknowledged for it. </p>
<p>Scientists as citizens have the right to advocate for political positions and figures that support the best possible evidence. In fact, when it comes to matters as serious as COVID-19 and climate change, we believe they have an obligation to.</p>
<p>Scientific American’s intervention may not impact votes, but that’s not the point. The point is it’s crucial for people who believe in knowledge and expertise to stand up and call out misinformation for what it is. To do less is to accept the current state. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/358510/original/file-20200917-14-1nsaqow.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Editor in Chief of Scientific American Laura Helmuth speaking to an audience." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/358510/original/file-20200917-14-1nsaqow.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/358510/original/file-20200917-14-1nsaqow.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/358510/original/file-20200917-14-1nsaqow.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/358510/original/file-20200917-14-1nsaqow.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/358510/original/file-20200917-14-1nsaqow.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/358510/original/file-20200917-14-1nsaqow.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/358510/original/file-20200917-14-1nsaqow.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Laura Helmuth is the ninth and current Editor in Chief of the Scientific American magazine. She was appointed to the role in April this year.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://twitter.com/webmz_/status/1249754585822121990">@webmz_/Twitter</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Australia’s work in progress</h2>
<p>Nonetheless, many scientists in Australia rely on government funding. This can make it difficult to speak up when legitimate evidence clashes with the orientation of the government of the day. Confronted with the possible loss of funding, what can a scientist do? </p>
<p>There’s no perfect solution. Many may feel the risks of speaking are too great. For many, they will be. </p>
<p>In such cases, scientists could perhaps look for intermediaries to make their case on their behalf – whether these are trustworthy journalists, or publicly visible academics like us. </p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/research-reveals-shocking-detail-on-how-australias-environmental-scientists-are-being-silenced-140026">Research reveals shocking detail on how Australia's environmental scientists are being silenced</a>
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<p>In the long term, defending those who have gone out of their way to act responsibly will help. The more this becomes normal, the more likely it will become the norm. But it’s also an unfortunate reality that change rarely occurs without discomfort. </p>
<p>When it comes to truly world-shaking crises like COVID-19 and climate change, scientists are political citizens like everyone else. And just like everyone else, they need to weigh the price of action against the price of inaction. </p>
<p>Speaking out can’t always be someone else’s job.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/146394/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rod Lamberts has previously received funding from the ARC.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Will J Grant does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Trump doesn’t just ignore science, he attacks it. Australia’s experts have an obligation to speak out on crises such as the coronavirus pandemic, even if it means picking a side in our politics.Rod Lamberts, Deputy Director, Australian National Centre for Public Awareness of Science, Australian National UniversityWill J Grant, Senior Lecturer, Australian National Centre for the Public Awareness of Science, Australian National UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1413262020-06-25T08:03:48Z2020-06-25T08:03:48ZVoice of America struggle for independence highlights issue of state role in government-backed media<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/343689/original/file-20200624-132965-nu4vy8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=8%2C14%2C1908%2C1051&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Michael Pack at his confirmation hearing in Washington, September 2019.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">VOA</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/06/voice-america-will-sound-like-trump/613321/">Journalists</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/bzelizer/status/1273454503317114881">scholars</a>, <a href="https://rsf.org/en/news/rsf-alarmed-abrupt-dismissals-us-news-agency-heads-trump-appointed-ceo">media freedom organisations</a> and even senior <a href="https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2020/jun/18/trump-global-media-chief-faces-gop-backlash-over-f/">Republicans</a> have been alarmed by the appointment of Donald Trump’s nominee, Michael Pack, as chief executive of the US Agency for Global Media (USAGM), which oversees state-funded international media. </p>
<p>Pack has been described as an <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/2018/jun/06/michael-pack-steve-bannon-ally-broadcasting-board-of-governors">ally of Steve Bannon</a>, the chief executive of the far-right media outlet, Breitbart News. Within two weeks of his formal appointment on June 4, Pack had “<a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2020/06/17/media/us-agency-for-global-media-michael-pack/index.html">purged</a>” the heads of four state-funded news organisations, Middle East Broadcasting, Radio Free Asia, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, and the Open Technology Fund. He is <a href="https://www.npr.org/2020/06/24/882654831/citing-a-breached-firewall-media-leaders-sue-u-s-official-over-firings?">now being sued</a> by former members of these organisations’ advisory boards, who claim that this mass sacking breaks federal guarantees about their journalistic independence.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/15/us/politics/voice-of-american-resignations.html">The director and deputy director of Voice of America (VoA) resigned</a> on June 2 two days before Pack took up his post. The radio network – which is the largest and best-known international news organisation funded by the US – also has a <a href="https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2020/06/15/2020-12696/firewall-and-highest-standards-of-professional-journalism">statutory</a> “firewall” designed to protect its editorial independence. Yet VoA is also obliged to carry “editorials” which present the views of the US government – editorials which <a href="https://www.usagm.gov/2020/06/24/usagm-ceo-michael-pack-moves-to-restore-voa-editorials-to-former-prominence/">Pack has ruled</a> must now be positioned much more prominently. </p>
<p>Journalists at VoA are <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2020/06/15/media/voice-of-america-top-officials-resign/index.html">reported</a> to be seriously concerned that Pack intends to “interfere with VoA’s independent newsroom and turn it into a pro-Trump messaging machine”. These fears are likely to be exacerbated by recent <a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2013/07/14/u-s-repeals-propaganda-ban-spreads-government-made-news-to-americans/">legislative changes</a> allowing VoA to broadcast domestically, which was previously forbidden under “anti-propaganda” laws passed during the cold war.</p>
<p>But perhaps the most obvious cause of concern is VoA’s increasingly fraught relationship with the White House. Earlier this year, Trump’s criticisms of VoA escalated, when he alleged that its journalists were spreading “Chinese propaganda” about <a href="https://choice.npr.org/index.html?origin=https://www.npr.org/2020/04/10/831988148/white-house-attacks-voice-of-america-over-china-coronavirus-coverage">coronavirus</a>. Then, just before Pack’s appointment, VoA journalists used a Freedom of Information request to discover that that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had emailed staff telling them to <a href="https://www.voanews.com/press-freedom/cdc-media-guidance-blacklists-voa-interview-requests">ignore media requests from VoA journalists</a>.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/343729/original/file-20200624-133002-ut5kai.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/343729/original/file-20200624-133002-ut5kai.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/343729/original/file-20200624-133002-ut5kai.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/343729/original/file-20200624-133002-ut5kai.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/343729/original/file-20200624-133002-ut5kai.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/343729/original/file-20200624-133002-ut5kai.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/343729/original/file-20200624-133002-ut5kai.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">VoA is the largest US international broadcaster.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Mark Van Scyoc via Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>So, how will VoA journalists respond to Pack’s new appointment? <a href="https://www.usagm.gov/2020/06/18/ceo-message-to-staff/">In an introductory email</a> to the staff of state-funded media organisations, Pack stressed his commitment to honouring VoA’s charter and the independence of its “heroic” staff around the world. The White House then issued a <a href="https://www.usagm.gov/2020/06/18/usagm-ceo-implements-critical-changes-on-day-one-to-fulfill-legislative-mandate/">press release</a> claiming that Pack’s reassuring message was met with an “overwhelmingly positive response” from journalists and grantees “who personally reached out and candidly congratulated him.” </p>
<p>One is even <a href="https://www.usagm.gov/2020/06/18/usagm-ceo-implements-critical-changes-on-day-one-to-fulfill-legislative-mandate/">cited as having said</a>: “I am sure that with your arrival, we will be able to rejuvenate our agency, to get rid of any bias and partisanship, and will be able to adequately transmit America’s image and ideas to the outer world.”</p>
<h2>Muddled mission</h2>
<p>Our recently published research shows that Pack’s appointment is unlikely to be viewed enthusiastically by many VoA journalists. Over the past five years, <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1940161220922832">we have studied</a> the relationships between journalists at various state-supported news outlets and the countries that fund them. The VoA journalists we spoke to said they had been seriously worried for a long time about Pack’s nomination, and their organisation’s relationship to the Trump administration. </p>
<p>Their concern was initially prompted by Trump’s notoriously poor relationship with the media, when combined with other legislative changes (passed late in the Obama administration), which removed the regulatory power of the bipartisan <a href="https://bbgwatch.com/bbgwatch/obama-signs-off-on-reducing-status-of-broadcasting-board-of-governors/">Broadcasting Board of Governors</a>. As one put it:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>We all saw what happened during the [election] campaign and the various different attacks on the media that the president, as a candidate, was waging.</p>
<p>There was a concern amongst journalists … that [without the BBG firewall] there would be some sort of real focus on how VoA can reach audiences around the world, and a look at, perhaps, how the White House can take advantage of that.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>However, VoA journalists also thought that the radio network was vulnerable to political interference because of specific tensions within <a href="https://www.voanews.com/archive/voa-charter-0">VoA’s Charter</a>. This obliges the network’s journalists to offer “accurate, objective, and comprehensive” news while “present[ing] the policies of the United States clearly and effectively.” </p>
<p>The charter states that VoA output should include “responsible discussions and opinion” on these policies, rather than simply representing the views of a “single segment of American society.” But this inevitably means that, as one editor put it, journalists report on international news “through the prism of United States’ government policy”. </p>
<p>The “red line” for VoA’s news journalists seemed to be their ability to make editorial decisions without explicit interference from the US government. Indeed, some told us that they had already decided to resign if the administration tried to use Pack’s appointment to curb their editorial independence. However, VoA journalists are not alone in experiencing serious ethical quandaries about their relationship to their funding state.</p>
<h2>Heavy hand of government</h2>
<p><a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1940161220922832">Our research</a> shows that a series of events between 2015-2018 have made it increasingly difficult for journalists at other state-funded international media to avoid confronting their role in diplomatic struggles for influence. </p>
<p>The most obvious example of this is international media funded by China, the premier of which takes an increasingly <a href="https://america.cgtn.com/2018/03/21/china-to-merge-state-media-broadcasting-giants">centralised and controlling approach to state-funded journalism</a>. Journalists working for China Global Television Network (CGTN), who had previously been allowed far more editorial discretion than their colleagues at other China-supported outlets, were deeply distressed by growing censorship, and other kinds of managerial intervention. This threatened their sense of themselves as “journalists”, with <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1940161220922832">one even saying</a> that they worried that the network was being pushed “towards the point of propaganda.”</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/343734/original/file-20200624-132978-1qy5x2f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/343734/original/file-20200624-132978-1qy5x2f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/343734/original/file-20200624-132978-1qy5x2f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/343734/original/file-20200624-132978-1qy5x2f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/343734/original/file-20200624-132978-1qy5x2f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/343734/original/file-20200624-132978-1qy5x2f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/343734/original/file-20200624-132978-1qy5x2f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Advertising banner for China Global Television Network at Heathrow Airport Terminal Five.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Mick Harper via Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>By contrast, we found no evidence that the UK government interfered in editorial matters. But its explicit framing of generous funding for the BBC World Service in terms of <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-security-strategy-and-strategic-defence-and-security-review-2015">British security interests</a> seriously troubled some journalists, especially those working in sensitive areas, such as former British colonies. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/343736/original/file-20200624-132982-14k87gz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/343736/original/file-20200624-132982-14k87gz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/343736/original/file-20200624-132982-14k87gz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/343736/original/file-20200624-132982-14k87gz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/343736/original/file-20200624-132982-14k87gz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/343736/original/file-20200624-132982-14k87gz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/343736/original/file-20200624-132982-14k87gz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">BBC World Service headquarters on Portland Place in London.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Willy Barton via Shutterstock</span></span>
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</figure>
<p>Although the Qatari government does not appear to have restructured or reframed its relationship to Al Jazeera English, its journalists became acutely aware of their involvement in international struggles during the Gulf diplomatic crisis, when Qatar’s neighbours and their allies demanded that Qatar <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/06/arab-states-issue-list-demands-qatar-crisis-170623022133024.html">close the network down</a>.</p>
<p>Journalists working for all of these state-funded news organisations have struggled to reconcile their understandings of their diplomatic role with their ideals of journalistic independence. Yet no matter how fraught relations with their funding governments became – and how compromised journalists sometimes felt – it was very unusual for them to resign or come together to resist state pressure en masse. </p>
<p>Indeed, we found that active resistance only happened when journalists feared that they would lose all credibility in the eyes of journalists outside of their news organisation, thus seriously damaging their own career prospects. So, <a href="https://www.npr.org/2020/06/16/877762070/top-executives-at-voa-resign-as-trump-ally-prepares-to-take-over">the decision of the two most senior executives at VoA to resign,</a> just before Pack’s appointment, should not be underestimated.</p>
<p>Instead of resisting government pressure, we found that journalists tended to use what we call “legitimising narratives” to reassure themselves and others that their work was still worthwhile. First, they compared themselves favourably with a shared “other” – Russia Today – arguing that they did not disseminate “state propaganda” like RT, because they told the truth. At other times, they would talk about the resources and access that their state funding gave them to do morally important, but time-consuming and expensive forms of investigative reporting — money that is increasingly vanishing at commercial news outlets.</p>
<p>Finally, the journalists would talk about the concept of “soft power” – and the fact that the government funded their news outlet to make them “look good” abroad. This soft power could only work, the journalists reasoned, if their news outlet was perceived as reporting in an independent and credible manner. So, they said they felt reasonably confident that the state was unlikely to erode their freedom further in the future. The latest events at VoA suggest that this confidence may have been misplaced.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/141326/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kate Wright receives funding from the UK's Arts and Humanities Research Council</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Martin Scott receives funding from the UK's Arts and Humanities Research Council</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mel Bunce receives funding from the UK's Arts and Humanities Research Council. </span></em></p>New research shows that journalists tend to only resist government interference when they fear it will seriously damage their career prospects’.Kate Wright, Academic Lead of Media and Communications Research Cluster, The University of EdinburghMartin Scott, Senior Lecturer in Media and International Development, University of East AngliaMel Bunce, Reader in Journalism, City, University of LondonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1165402019-05-05T20:19:44Z2019-05-05T20:19:44ZDavid Anderson’s appointment as ABC managing director is a relief and will further steady the broadcaster<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/272654/original/file-20190505-103049-3lyg5y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">David Anderson has more than 30 years' experience at the ABC, and appears to be well-regarded within the organisation.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP/Dan Himbrechts</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The appointment of David Anderson as managing director and editor-in-chief of the ABC is something of a relief.</p>
<p>It is an important early signal of how the <a href="https://theconversation.com/ita-buttroses-appointment-as-new-abc-chair-a-promising-step-in-the-right-direction-112683">new ABC chair, Ita Buttrose</a>, is giving effect to her promise of bringing stability to the ABC after the chaotic events of last September in which the broadcaster lost both its chair, Justin Milne, and managing director Michelle Guthrie.</p>
<p>While nothing is known about the alternative candidates, quite a bit is known about Anderson.</p>
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<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/ita-buttroses-appointment-as-new-abc-chair-a-promising-step-in-the-right-direction-112683">Ita Buttrose's appointment as new ABC chair a promising step in the right direction</a>
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<p>He has 30 years’ experience with the ABC. Before being appointed acting managing director after Guthrie’s sudden sacking, he was responsible for all ABC radio music and broadcast television networks and for its on-demand products and services.</p>
<p>He seems to be well-regarded inside the organisation. The director of news, Gaven Morris, tweeted “order restored”. The comedian Shaun Micallef posted a YouTube video clip from one of his sketches, the making of which required human ballast to tilt the set on an angle. Anderson, he said, <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-05-03/abc-managing-director-named-david-anderson/11079152">came down from his office</a> and lent his heft to the task.</p>
<p>It can be safely anticipated that the ABC’s critics will see in this a cosy insiders’ choice designed to ensure the organisation remains self-referential in outlook and impervious to conservative influences.</p>
<p>It will be entertaining, in a droll kind of way, to see if epithets such as “the ABC collective”, “Trotskyite” and “sheltered workshop” get another run as they did when Russell Balding replaced Jonathan Shier after the latter’s chaotic reign came to an <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/pm/stories/s405396.htm">abrupt end in 2001</a>.</p>
<p>Anderson’s appointment has many echoes of Balding’s. Balding too was an insider – he had been general manager of finance. He too was appointed following a chaotic reign and abrupt departure. He, too, was seen as a safe pair of hands who would restore stability, as indeed he did.</p>
<p>Like Balding, Anderson also inherits an ABC facing acute financial pressures and a recent history of hostility from the federal government.</p>
<p>However, a structural problem that was central to the way the Milne-Guthrie debacle played out is yet to be fixed.</p>
<p>That problem is the combining of the roles of managing director and editor-in-chief in the one person. Guthrie was hopelessly ill-suited by experience and inclination to be editor-in-chief. Anderson, whatever his other qualities, has no journalistic experience either.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/abc-inquiry-finds-board-knew-of-trouble-between-milne-and-guthrie-but-did-nothing-114752">ABC inquiry finds board knew of trouble between Milne and Guthrie, but did nothing</a>
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<p>Mark Scott, who was editor-in-chief at the then Fairfax newspapers before being appointed managing director of the ABC, was exceptionally well qualified for both jobs. He has been <a href="https://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/media/mark-scott-calls-for-a-tough-hand-to-steer-the-abc/news-story/3f782121410d38887122cb69a316989b">reported as saying</a> the chief executive of the broadcaster needs to embrace the editor-in-chief role. Scott said:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The chief executive is responsible for everything that goes to air and you cannot have a structure where finally the chief executive is not responsible.</p>
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<p>While this is true, in most media organisations it is achieved differently. The editor-in-chief answers to the board through the chief executive; the board and chief executive answer to the shareholders – or, in the ABC’s case, to the government.</p>
<p>Moreover, under a structure like that, the editor-in-chief is not a board member and therefore is not a party to board decisions with the associated requirements of board solidarity.</p>
<p>In these two important ways, the editor-in-chief is shielded from becoming compromised, enabling him or her to make news decisions independent of corporate interests. It is called editorial independence and is the cornerstone of good journalism.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/abc-inquiry-finds-board-knew-of-trouble-between-milne-and-guthrie-but-did-nothing-114752">ABC inquiry finds board knew of trouble between Milne and Guthrie, but did nothing</a>
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<p>Strong editorial leadership founded on independence liberates editors and journalists at every level to tell stories that matter to the public interest without looking over their shoulders fearful of politically inspired retribution.</p>
<p>There has never been a time in Australia’s modern history when there was a greater need for an editorially robust ABC.</p>
<p>In December 2018, Fairfax newspapers were <a href="https://theconversation.com/a-modern-tragedy-nine-fairfax-merger-a-disaster-for-quality-media-100584">swallowed up</a> into the Nine entertainment conglomerate, with consequences for their editorial quality that are yet to be seen.</p>
<p>Fairfax controlled about 20% of metropolitan daily newspaper circulation in Australia.</p>
<p>News Corp, which controls about two-thirds of this circulation, has morphed into a hybrid of news service and political propaganda machine, its usefulness as a news provider declining in proportion as its propagandising mission has grown.</p>
<p>Fairfax’s regional newspapers were <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/business/companies/antony-catalano-buys-nine-s-regional-newspapers-for-115m-20190430-p51ih0.html">acquired last week</a> by a former Fairfax journalist and corporate executive, Antony Catalano, along with a financial backer in the form of Thorney Investment Group. </p>
<p>While that provides Australia with some sorely needed diversity in media ownership, it is unlikely to have a significant impact on journalism at the national level.</p>
<p>Without a strong ABC news and current affairs service, the fourth estate of Australia’s democracy would be severely diminished.</p>
<p>The appointment of a new chair and a new managing director means that two of the three salient features of the ABC’s post-Milne landscape are in place.</p>
<p>The third is the composition of the board as a whole. The surviving members came out badly from the majority report of the <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Senate/Environment_and_Communications/ABCInterferenceAllegations">Senate inquiry</a> into political interference in the ABC, which was published in April.</p>
<p>The report found that the catalogue of events leading up to the sacking of Guthrie and the resignation of Milne “may give rise to the perception that the ABC Board had not been sufficiently active in protecting either the ABC’s independence from political interference or its own integrity”.</p>
<p>What, if anything, Buttrose does about that remains to be seen.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/116540/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Denis Muller does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>However, the problem of combining the managing director and editor-in-chief roles remains, and these must be separated to preserve editorial independence.Denis Muller, Senior Research Fellow in the Centre for Advancing Journalism, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1005842018-07-26T03:58:07Z2018-07-26T03:58:07ZA modern tragedy: Nine-Fairfax merger a disaster for quality media<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/229368/original/file-20180726-106511-eurlv2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">There is a huge question mark over the future editorial quality of the newspapers after the merger.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP/Joel Carrett</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>All deaths are sudden, even if long expected.</p>
<p>Appropriately enough, this is the opening sentence of a book called <a href="https://books.google.com.au/books/about/Journalism_in_a_culture_of_grief.html?id=0iPuAAAAMAAJ&redir_esc=y">Journalism in a Culture of Grief</a>.</p>
<p>And if ever there was a time of grief for journalism in Australia, it is today, with the announcement that <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/2018/jul/26/fairfax-and-nine-network-agree-to-merge-in-estimated-4bn-deal">Nine Entertainment is taking over Fairfax Media</a>.</p>
<p>It means the death of Fairfax and is the most consequential change in Australian media ownership in 31 years.</p>
<p>It also means that three of Australia’s best and biggest newspapers – The Age, The Sydney Morning Herald and The Australian Financial Review – are now subsumed into a media conglomerate whose editorial culture is characterised by mediocre journalism.</p>
<p>Nine’s news bulletins consist largely of police stories with a tincture of politics, and highlights of colourful or violent events overseas.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/australian-media-at-a-crossroads-amid-threats-to-diversity-and-survival-77314">Australian media at a crossroads amid threats to diversity and survival</a>
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<p>Its current affairs program, A Current Affair, is a formulaic procession of stories about consumer rorts and personal tragedies.</p>
<p>So there is a huge question mark over the future editorial quality of the newspapers.</p>
<p>A particularly pressing question is: what will happen to The Age’s investigative unit?</p>
<p>It is led by two of the best investigative reporters Australia has produced, Nick McKenzie and Richard Baker.</p>
<p>In addition to breaking an extraordinary range of major stories on subjects like organised crime and scandals in the <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/business/banking-and-finance/bankers-for-a-gangster-commonwealth-lenders-help-mafia-boss-do-laundry-20180330-p4z72j.html">banking industry</a>, they have developed a highly successful collaboration with the ABC’s Four Corners team.</p>
<p>It seems very unlikely Nine would allow this collaboration to continue, since it involves a rival television channel.</p>
<p>There is also a question about editorial independence.</p>
<p>Fairfax has a <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/national/fairfax-media-charter-of-editorial-independence-20120619-20l4t.html">charter of editorial independence</a>, which all owners since 1990 have signed up to. Will Nine sign up to it? Will the charter have any meaning when the newspapers are owned by a company whose chairman, Peter Costello, was treasurer in the Liberal-National Coalition government of former Prime Minister John Howard?</p>
<p>The answers to these questions will not be known for some time. They will depend largely on who is given editorial control of the combined operation. Since the Nine CEO, Hugh Marks, is to be CEO of the combined operation, it seems more likely than not that it will be a Nine executive who calls the editorial shots, too.</p>
<p>The takeover also means a further loss of diversity in an already highly concentrated media-ownership landscape. The big players are now down to four: News Corp, Nine, Seven West Media and the ABC.</p>
<p>And it is almost certain to mean the loss of yet more journalists’ jobs.</p>
<p>Since 2012, more than 3,000 jobs have been lost across Australian journalism. Yet, if the takeover is really going to represent “compelling value” for shareholders, as Fairfax chairman Nick Falloon says, then newsroom “synergies” – to borrow the corporate jargon – are likely to be essential.</p>
<p>The Fairfax company’s death throes have been painful and prolonged.</p>
<p>They began in 1987, when the younger son of Sir Warwick Fairfax, “young Warwick”, privatised it. That meant buying out all the public shareholders, for which purpose “young Warwick” borrowed AU$1.6 billion from the National Australia Bank.</p>
<p>Even with the revenue from the “rivers of gold” then flowing in from the classified ads of The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald, “young Warwick” could not meet his debts to the bank, which promptly sold him up.</p>
<p>In a highly politicised auction, during which Paul Keating and the then-Labor prime minister, Bob Hawke, sought assurances from prospective buyers concerning political outlook, the company <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/business/fairfax-didnt-want-to-dance-with-a-devil-20071211-1gga.html">fell into the hands</a> of a London-based Canadian, Conrad Black.</p>
<p>There followed a procession of ownership changes, board reshuffles and short-lived chief executives that left the company rudderless and vulnerable.</p>
<p>Shortly after the turn of the millennium, when the digital revolution began to engulf the media, a weakened and incompetently managed Fairfax was ill-equipped to respond.</p>
<p>A series of disastrous mistakes by successive boards resulted in Fairfax missing out on opportunities to buy into the new online advertising platforms in cars, jobs and real estate.</p>
<p>Hubris and arrogance led incumbent board members to believe that these markets could not function without the mountains of classified advertisements carried by The Age and Herald on Saturdays.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/mixed-media-how-australias-newspapers-became-locked-in-a-war-of-left-versus-right-79001">Mixed media: how Australia's newspapers became locked in a war of left versus right</a>
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<p>By 2005, the shift in revenue to online platforms was discernible, and the trend has been accelerating ever since.</p>
<p>As a result, the company was increasingly unable to meet the demands of the share market for profit growth, and so became the object of sustained takeover speculation.</p>
<p>When the federal government <a href="https://theconversation.com/media-reform-deals-will-reduce-diversity-and-amount-to-little-more-than-window-dressing-83957">changed the laws</a> in September last year to allow once again cross-media ownership between newspapers, radio, television and online, speculation about a merger between Nine and Fairfax grew stronger.</p>
<p>Today that speculation became a reality.</p>
<p>The Fairfax story has all the elements of Greek tragedy: heroism in the creation of the company, then a combination of comedy, pride, stupidity, greed, arrogance and hubris to bring it down.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/100584/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Denis Muller does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The merger signals the death of Fairfax, and is the most consequential change in Australian media ownership in 31 years.Denis Muller, Senior Research Fellow in the Centre for Advancing Journalism, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/997842018-07-13T01:10:05Z2018-07-13T01:10:05ZWhy the ABC, and the public that trusts it, must stand firm against threats to its editorial independence<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/227302/original/file-20180712-27018-1tb8zum.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Author Tom Keneally, actress Magda Szubanski and journalist Kerry O'Brien are among the ABC's high-profile supporters.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP/Jeremy Ng</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The people who are turning up at Save the ABC rallies around the country are defending a cultural institution they value because they trust it.</p>
<p>In particular, they trust its news service. <a href="https://www.roymorgan.com/findings/7641-media-net-trust-june-2018-201806260239">Public opinion polls</a> going back to the 1950s consistently show it is by far the most trusted in the country.</p>
<p>So at this time it is pertinent to look at what creates a trustworthy news service. The cornerstone is editorial independence. As opinion polls have shown time and again, where people suspect a newspaper, radio, TV or online news service of pushing some commercial or political interest, their level of trust falls.</p>
<p>Editorial independence does not mean giving journalists licence to broadcast or publish whatever they want or to avoid accountability for their mistakes.</p>
<p>It means encouraging journalists to tackle important stories regardless of what people in power might think, then backing them to make judgments based on news values and the public interest, not on irrelevant considerations such as commercial, financial or political pressure.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/constant-attacks-on-the-abc-will-come-back-to-haunt-the-coalition-government-98456">Constant attacks on the ABC will come back to haunt the Coalition government</a>
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<p>Editorial independence is hard won and under constant pressure from outside the newsroom.</p>
<p>In commercial media, this pressure comes from big advertisers or company bosses with financial or political interests to push.</p>
<p>In public-sector broadcasting, the pressure comes from the federal government, which provides the funding and has powerful means of subjecting the broadcaster to intense political pressure.</p>
<p>A robust editorial leadership is essential to resisting this heat. It’s a daily battle. If the senior editorial management wilts, the weakness is swiftly transmitted down the hierarchy.</p>
<p>Middle-level editors and the staff journalists who work to them start looking over their shoulders, tempted to take easy options and avoid possible heat. The easiest option is self-censorship, dodging sensitive stories, leaving out material or watering it down.</p>
<p>This is where the ABC is at a crossroads. It has as its managing director and editor-in-chief Michelle Guthrie, a person with no journalistic background and who until recently showed scant signs of understanding the impact on the ABC’s editorial independence of the Turnbull government’s relentless bullying.</p>
<p>Then last month she <a href="https://www.melbournepressclub.com/article/standing-up-for-the-abc">gave a speech</a> at the Melbourne Press Club in which she said Australians regard the ABC as a great national institution and deeply resent it being used as “a punching bag by narrow political, commercial or ideological interests”.</p>
<p>It was a start, and now the cause has been taken up by ABC staff themselves and by the wider public in the Save the ABC movement led by ABC Friends.</p>
<p>It is strongly reminiscent of events at The Age nearly 30 years ago, when I was an associate editor there. Then, a Save The Age campaign showed how effective a public outpouring of support for a news outlet can be when they set out to defend one they trust.</p>
<p>The campaign’s origins lay in concerns among senior journalists at the paper over what might happen to its editorial independence when receivers were appointed in 1990. This followed a disastrous attempt by “young” Warwick Fairfax to privatise the Fairfax company, which was the paper’s owner.</p>
<p>A group of senior journalists, including the late David Wilson and the distinguished business writer Stephen Bartholomeusz, formed The Age Independence Committee. It drew up a <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/national/fairfax-media-charter-of-editorial-independence-20120619-20l4t.html">charter of editorial independence</a>.</p>
<p>The key passages stated that:</p>
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<li><p>the proprietors acknowledge that journalists, artists and photographers must record the affairs of the city, state, nation and the world fairly, fully and regardless of any commercial, political or personal interests, including those of any proprietors, shareholders or board members</p></li>
<li><p>full editorial control of the newspaper, within a negotiated, fixed budget, is vested in the editor</p></li>
<li><p>the editor alone decides the editorial content, and controls the hiring, firing and deployment of editorial staff.</p></li>
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<p>The Save The Age campaign generated tremendous public support. Former prime ministers Malcolm Fraser and Gough Whitlam, who had barely been on speaking terms since <a href="https://theconversation.com/australian-politics-explainer-gough-whitlams-dismissal-as-prime-minister-74148">the Dismissal</a> 15 years earlier, joined together at the head of a public demonstration in Melbourne’s Treasury Gardens. One of the campaign slogans was “Maintain Your Age”, a pun on Whitlam’s post-Dismissal election slogan, “Maintain Your Rage”.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-politics-behind-the-competitive-neutrality-inquiry-into-abc-and-sbs-95925">The politics behind the competitive neutrality inquiry into ABC and SBS</a>
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<p>Eventually, the receivers signed the charter and so, after some wrangling, did the new owners led by the Canadian-born newspaper baron, Conrad Black. Black is gone but the charter remains.</p>
<p>Like The Age in 1990, the ABC today has strong public support.</p>
<p>Like The Age in 1990, senior journalistic staff, most notably the Melbourne “Mornings” radio presenter Jon Faine, and former presenter of 7.30 on ABC TV, Kerry O’Brien, have shown leadership, lending their profile and authority to the cause.</p>
<p>But unlike The Age, the ABC does not have publicly acknowledged bipartisan political support.</p>
<p>Whatever Malcolm Turnbull’s private views of the ABC, and whatever the stated policy of his government, the facts are that since 2014 the Abbott and Turnbull governments have cut $338 million from the ABC’s funding, and the federal council of the Liberal Party <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-06-16/liberal-members-vote-to-privatise-abc-move-embassy-to-jerusalem/9877524">voted last month</a> to sell it off.</p>
<p>It is quite possible that when it reports in September, the present <a href="https://www.communications.gov.au/have-your-say/inquiry-competitive-neutrality-national-broadcasters">inquiry into</a> the ABC’s competitive neutrality will provide some impetus to this proposition or propose some other ways to clip the ABC’s wings.</p>
<p>It is significant in the context of editorial independence that the inquiry is taking a particular interest in the ABC news service. That is the part of the ABC most detested by politicians, and on which the present government has focused its most intense pressure.</p>
<p>If editorial independence weakens, public trust will weaken too. That would make the ABC an even more attractive political target for a hostile government.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/99784/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>From 2007 to 2011 Denis Muller worked as a consultant to the ABC devising and testing a method for assessing impartiality of editorial content.
</span></em></p>The public broadcaster’s editorial independence must be protected at all costs – from within and without.Denis Muller, Senior Research Fellow in the Centre for Advancing Journalism, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.