The following article was published in "The Guardian", newspaper of the Communist Party of Australia in its issue of Wednesday, May 9th, 2001. Contact address: 65 Campbell Street, Surry Hills. Sydney. 2010 Australia. Phone: (612) 9212 6855 Fax: (612) 9281 5795. CPA Central Committee: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> "The Guardian": <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Webpage: http://www.cpa.org.au> Subscription rates on request. ****************************** Fight for your ABC On Sunday April 29, 15,000 members of the public -- ABC shareholders -- gathered on the Sydney Opera House steps to protest against cuts to the national broadcaster's funding by the Federal Government. Over the coming weeks "The Guardian" will publish edited versions of the contributions of a number of speakers at the protest. The following is an abridged version of the contribution by ABC current affairs presenter, Quentin Dempster. My fellow shareholders. As you know the ABC is slowly being destroyed by government. Over the last 15 years ABC funding has been cut in real terms by 34 percent. In the last 10 years, 2000 broadcasters and support staff have been made to walk the redundancy plank. ABC Television is now reliant on repeats and the shelf items of other broadcasters -- overwhelmingly British -- to maintain the viability of its programming schedule. We've become UK TV. So much for the ABC Act which obliges the national broadcaster to "enhance a sense of Australian identity". Over the last 15 years our democratically elected Australian Prime Ministers -- Hawke, Keating and Howard -- have besmirched the prestige of their high office by cuddling up to the big media tycoons: the policy and media-market `gatekeepers' -- Murdoch and Packer -- while allowing the national broadcaster to be marginalised ... to wither on the vine. All recent Australian Prime Ministers seem to think that by looking after the interests of the ascendant tycoon first, they would have a better chance of staying in power: Hawke and Keating by allowing Murdoch's take-over of the Herald and Weekly Times in 1987 and Howard through the revenue protective digital spectrum policy favouring Packer in 1998. What a pathetic sight in one of the world's most enduring democracies, our country -- Australia -- to see our Prime Ministers grovelling like this. The Australian people deserve better. And what have ABC boards done in response to funding attrition? They have allowed the ABC's editorial independence and integrity to be put at risk. They have embraced editorially compromising commercial deals, like Pay TV (with Fairfax and the US cable operator Cox Communications) and sponsorship on an ABC satellite channel. ABC boards have allowed what amounts to the privatisation ... contestibility and outsourcing are the modus operandi ... of more and more television. This is dressed up to look like the ABC is giving work to the so-called "independent" television sector. If ever there was a misnomer, this was it. They are not "independent". Don't get me wrong. We want a diverse and viable Australian TV production industry. But when the ABC comes to commission content from the commercial or private production sector the increasing risk is that programs will be selected solely for their bankability ... their commerciality ... their on-sales potential to other networks here and offshore and the pay TV market. The ABC is becoming (through this process) a transmitter for hire. ABC programs which should be commissioned because of their originality, their risk taking, their innovation, will be omitted from the production slate simply because they are not commercially bankable. This is what's called dumbing down. It's already happening. Recent ABC board strategies have inexorably run down the ABC as a production house, destroying the skills base of the broadcaster and abandoning our contribution to the Australian radio, film and television industry which we had provided since our foundation in 1932 through the training of writers, producers, artists, technicians, camera and sound operators and the program makers of drama, comedy, documentary, the arts, education programming and news and current affairs. ABC boards, our current Chairman, and Communications Ministers all say they are committed to the ABC as our most important cultural institution, vital to Australia's democratic processes. But the actions of government and the passivity and compliance of ABC boards -- made up in many instances of party political hacks -- speak for themselves. The ABC is being destroyed with the compliance of stacked boards of party political hacks. The current management, with the apparent endorsement of the current board, has embarked on a reign of terror in which middle and upper ranking executives have been "executed" -- their contracts summarily terminated -- sometimes on a whim. And where is the ABC Board in all this? Silent ... as usual, perhaps taking sadistic pleasure in the terror its management has created as program makers, production staff and executives have to face "drop dead" days, euphemistically called "restructuring". Look ... the ABC is a flawed institution. We make mistakes. There are misjudgements. There can be bias, inexperience, factual inaccuracy and misinterpretations among the millions of broadcast and cybercast words put out each 24 hours. But for all its undoubted faults the ABC and its dedicated program makers strive for high standards and objective journalism. We do not always reach the highest standards, I concede. But through the commitment of ABC staff over the last 15 years -- under enormous defunding pressure, evaporating creative and career opportunities -- the ABC remains one of the most trusted institutions in Australia. In a survey of corporate and institutional trust -- Eye on Australia -- last year, the ABC emerged at the top of the list. Listen to this: on a scale of one to 10 the major Australian charities were declared to be the most trusted -- 8 out of 10. Followed by the ABC at 7. SO THE ABC IS TRUSTED! Many of us within the ABC are determined not to betray that trust and will fight to the bitter end to maintain a genuinely independent and adequately publicly funded ABC. In recent times it has been said that the ABC has been captured by its staff. GIVE ME A BREAK! Do you remember last year's cash for comment inquiry in commercial radio by the Australian Broadcasting Authority? Julian Burnside QC cross-examined John Brennan, general manager of 2UE. Burnside asked Brennan if he had ever questioned John Laws and Alan Jones about their private financial arrangements with their corporate clients. "No", said John Brennan ... "they have very big egos ... I'd be too frightened to ask them anything like that." NOW THAT'S STAFF CAPTURE!! We, the shareholders of the ABC have to fight to secure the future of independent public broadcasting in Australia particularly in this time of technological change ... as broadcasting, telecommunications and computing are converging. It is a fight we must engage in for our country, its future in the world, and for the future of our children. There is much to do this year ... an election year ... to make our voices heard by our fellow Australians. We must speak up ... organise WE MUST NEVER GET TIRED ... *********************************************************** -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Archived at http://www.cat.org.au/lists/leftlink/ Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Subscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink
