stacking the abc board - fabcnsw.org.au · our annual award for "excellence in...

The Federal government’s deci-sion to appoint Janet Albrechtsen tothe board of the ABC underscores itscontempt for the national broadcast-er. Both major political parties havebeen guilty of making politicalappointments over many years, butthe Howard government has taken itto another level – it has the arro-gance to appoint self-confessedopponents of the ABC.

The outrageous appointment ofthe conservative News Limitedcolumnist is the latest in a growinglist. First there was Liberal Partypowerbroker and Packer acolyteMichael Kroger, who pushed claimsof bias against the ABC while on theBoard. All were comprehensivelyrejected. He was replaced by Dr Ron

Brunton, a former senior fellow withthe Institute of Public Affairs, a rightwing think tank that has been afierce critic of the ABC. MsAlbrechtsen is of the same ilk. Herallegations of left-wing bias againstthe ABC have been augmented by aspectacular public spat with MediaWatch.

The Friends of the ABC believe allof them to be completely inappropri-ate appointments.

Instead of moving towards a moreindependent and transparent pro-cess of board appointments such asthe Nolan Rules in the UK, intro-duced by a Conservative govern-ment there, it seems that the onlyprerequisite for being appointed to

the ABC board is to toe the sameideological line as the government.The Liberal/National Coalition is theonly major political group in Australiathat refuses to adopt as policy anindependent method of ABC boardappointments. The true test is that .

Continued on Page 4

Inside:Christmas on the Dot….....................2The President’s Report…..................3Radio National Funding Crisis...........5ABC Shines in Tsunami ...................7ABC Launches New Digital Channel.12The Future of Public Broadcasting 13Around the Branches .................14-15

STACKING THE ABC BOARDFABC President, Gary Cook

Cartoon courtesy Phil Sommerville

Friends of the ABC (NSW) Inc.quarterly newsletterMarch 2005 Vol 15, N o.1incorporatingbackground briefingnational magazine

Media Watch’s Alison McClymont, Peter McEvoy, and TrishDrum with the Friends’ Excellence in Broadcasting award.

Mal Hewitt, Jim Grainda and Annie Nielsen fromParramatta Branch

Peter Brandscheid, Lisa and Allan Thomasfrom Hunter

CHRISTMAS ON THE DOT

The NSW Friends annual shindig at Ultimo lastDecember was bigger and better than ever.

About 200 Friends were joined by a number of popularABC presenters. Media Watch EP Peter McEvoy amdmembers of his team turned up to receive the Friends’annual Excellence in Broadcasting Award.

The award is given to the person or program webelieve most in keeping with the aims and aspirations ofthe Friends of the ABC. Previous winners includeCaroline Jones.

The pictures tell the story!

Kerry O’Brien got an enthusiastic welcome from Max Plumb

Ming d’Iapico-Bien, Jessica Harwood, Janet Harwood FABC NSW President Gary Cook and Sunday Nights presenter, John Cleary

It was a plea-sure to againmeet many mem-bers at our AnnualChristmas Partyon 3 Decemberlast at ABC

Headquarters. Our annual award for"Excellence in Broadcasting" waspresented to the Media Watch pro-gram. Presenter David Marr hasreturned to his former role at theSydney Morning Herald and a newpresenter Liz Jackson of FourCorners will host the program in2005.

This year will see a significantshift in the political landscape. TheHoward Government, apart frombeing returned in October, is set togain control of the Senate in July. Nodoubt, the electorate voted accord-ingly and many people would say"that is democracy in action". On theother hand, the checks and balancesthat the Senate has provided formany years due to the balance ofpower not being controlled by theGovernment of the day, could besaid to be more democratic. Whatdoes this mean for the Friends of theABC? It means that we have to beeven more vigilant.

Future Campaigns

Relaxation of the cross-mediaownership laws is certainly on theGovernment’s agenda. This wouldwork in favour of Packer andMurdoch and ensure a less indepen-dent media. The importance andindependence of the ABC is under-scored even more.

Other potential issues which wewill not only be keeping a watchingbrief over, but preparing to campaignon are :-

● Gradual commercialisation(perhaps the SBS model)

● Reducing the ABC to being aspecialised broadcaster and not acomprehensive one by altering theABC Charter

● Further cuts in the ABC budget

Once again, when a major crisishas occurred (the Boxing Day tsuna-

mi), the ABC has excelled. The quali-ty of ABC correspondents is of thehighest calibre and their reports fromdisaster zones have been graphic,informative and sensitive.

When the monitoring results ofthe ABC’s coverage of the 2004Federal Election were released, it leftABC critics no opportunity to levelaccusations of bias against the ABC.The monitoring process is assessedfor fairness and balance internally bythe Election Coverage ReviewCommittee and externally byRehame and Newspoll.

Fair and Balanced

Rehame found that, over thecampaign period, the ABC’s electioncoverage provided 44.6% share ofvoice to the Coalition and 43.5%share of voice to the ALP. InRehame’s words, "These resultsdemonstrate an even balance in theABC’s media coverage for the dura-tion of the 2004 Federal Electioncampaign". Newspoll found that"among those who have an opinion,community perceptions remain heav-ily weighted towards the ABC beingunbiased in its reporting of news andcurrent affairs and not biased infavour or against particular federalpolitical parties".

It is worth noting that, for the2004 campaign, no written com-plaints were received from the cam-paign headquarters of any party.

The decision by ABC Director ofEnterprises, Robyn Watts, to with-draw the ban on the licensing andsupply of archival material to thirdparties is welcomed. At the time thatthe ban was imposed, we voiced ourdispleasure at what we saw as anopportunity for political figures tocensor historical footage. After all, theABC’s Editorial Policies state that"ABC program material is a valuable,historical, cultural and commercialasset".

ABC Managing Director RussellBalding denied that there was a bud-get crisis at Radio National whenquizzed before a Senate EstimatesCommittee in late February.

RN Funding Crisis

Despite Mr. Baldings assuranceswe are hearing regular and disturb-ing reports of vacancies not beingfilled, a lack of producers available,programs being cut or adverselyaffected and, while local radio isachieving excellent survey results,Radio National is languishing atabout 2% of the market. An emer-gency review of resources is beingundertaken to find a solution, but,with the report not due until the endof May, there are three more monthsleft in this financial year for RadioNational to struggle through.

It is a fact that, due to the natureof its content, Radio Nationalrequires a greater number of staffthan other less specialised ABCradio networks. Its programs involvea significant amount of research andthey are generally of original material.

When the Government conductsits review of the ABC’s managementof its budget, the plight of RadioNational needs to be highlighted. Ifthere is a genuine commitment to theArts in this country, Radio Nationalshould be clearly acknowledged asthe principal electronic communica-tion medium for the Arts in Australia.

The Friends will be holding aNational Conference in Sydney overthe weekend of 16-17 April. Someimportant issues are looming, in par-ticular:-

● The government’s intention toconduct a review of the ABC’s man-agement of its budget

● Further appointments to theABC Board

● A review by the government ofthe complaints procedure (formingpart of the ABA replacement bodywhich is expected to be in place by 1July 2005)

● The ABC’s Triennial Fundingsubmission for 2006 (due to be sub-mitted by September 2005)

● Commercialisation by stealth● Digital radio and television● Cross-media ownership

Gary Cook, President

THE PRESIDENT S REPORT’

STACKING THE ABC BOARD

Continued from Page 1

the only non-executive Board memberwith a background in broadcasting isthe staff elected director, RamonaKoval. Ms Koval described the latestappointment as "inappropriate.”

On her appointment, MsAlbrechtsen, in criticising RamonaKoval for her comments, stated that"it’s not the place for a director to betalking about that in public" ….."discussions will take place at boardlevel, which is where they ought totake place".

This high-principled positionappeared to have been quickly for-gotten, for less than three days later,the same Ms Albrechtsen, comment-ing on ABC Radio, said that the issueof bias was a priority for the ABCboard. In the best Alstonian tradition,she continued, "I’ve written about theABC on some occasions where Ihave seen there to be, there havebeen problems of bias and how factsare presented. Now, whether thattranslates into a systemic bias, Idon’t know, but I’m certainly happy tolook at that."

Friends of the ABC’s spokespersonMargaret O’Connor issued the follow-ing media release on 25 February.

Following the appointment of MsJanet Albrechtsen to the board ofthe ABC, Friends of the ABC havecalled on the government to reformthe process by which appoint-ments are made to the ABC board.

Ms Albrechtsen, who writes forThe Australian, has been a fierceand unrelenting critic of the ABC.

I think it is fair to describe MsAlbrechtsen as an ideologicalzealot, which, in itself, does notdisqualify her from the ABC board.Our problem is with the politicalbalance on the ABC board, andwith the appointment process.

In selecting commentators toappear on its programs, the ABCis, quite properly, required to pro-vide a balance of opinion. But inselecting members of the ABCboard, the government appointsMs Albrechtsen and other ‘usualsuspects’ time after time.

When you get so many Directorswho have been such open criticsof the ABC and such a preponder-ance of the same political views,we say the ABC board is scream-ing out for a bit of balance. AnyABC producer who chose the gov-ernment appointed members ofthe ABC board as the panel for acurrent affairs discussion would bequickly found guilty of bias.

Not only does the governmentappoint the usual suspects, but theprocess itself is also suspect. Ithappens secretly, and without anyapparent relationship to the qualifi-cations required to run a half billiondollar a year organisation. It is timethat the government followed theexample of the Conservative gov-ernment in the UK and implement-ed an open, transparent and non-partisan method of finding qualifiedpeople to run our national broad-caster. So say the Friends of theABC.

Unfortunately the furore surround-ing the Albrechtsen appointment hasgiven several ABC bashers thecourage to come out of their holes. Aparticularly nasty article appeared in

The Australian authored by NeilBrown, a former communicationsminister in the Fraser government.

Some members will recall that thefirst cuts to the ABC budget soincensed devoted ABC listeners andviewers that they became mobilisedand formed Friends of the ABC in1976. Brown was a member of thegovernment that was responsible.

Brown sarcastically typified whathe called "the official ABC position"as "first of all, against anythingAmerican." He went on to criticisethe ABC because he said it "hasopposed the war in Iraq at everystep, gloated over every setback andmagnified every criticism from anymalcontent and misfit it can find."

"Moreover" he said, "... on theABC, all industry is bad, all chemi-cals are poisonous, all wilderness ispristine, all animals are gentle, allbusiness is evil and all government aconspiracy." Brown convenientlyomitted to mention the clean bill ofhealth given to the ABC’s electioncoverage by Rehame.

In his article, Brown congratulatedAlbrechtsen on getting on the boardof the ABC, saying he could "alreadyhear the irate rattle of spoons in athousand caffe lattes up and downthe east coast as the inevitable ragebuilds up to tsunami-like proportions."

I wrote back taking issue withBrown on behalf of the Friends.

The fact that the ABC continues toprovide a world class broadcastingservice despite being grossly under-funded, subject to political interfer-ence and board stacking, is a tributeto its dedicated staff.

But I’m afraid it must prepare forfurther attacks from this government.

Janet Albrechtsen

Michael Kroger

Neil Brown

Radio National is rightlydescribed as the jewel in thecrown of ABC Radio. It has thehighest editorial and productionvalues, an impossibly eclectic anderudite spectrum of programming,and a devoted audience of influen-tial people. However it’s also in thegrip of a crippling budget squeeze.

Staff returning to RN after theChristmas break were told that anumber of program assignmentsneeded to be changed to meetbudget shortfalls. About a dozenmembers of staff, many with spe-cialist qualifications, were re-assigned to different programs.Vacancies created by five resigna-tions were left unfilled. It seemsthat RN managers knew of theshortfall when commissioning theschedule for 2005, but went aheadwith it anyway.

At subsequent union meetingsRN staff condemned the under-staffing, and warned that programswere being put to air withoutchecking, and that some peoplewere working on two shows atonce. RN staff also passed amotion of no confidence in theirProgram Manager Gordon Taylor.Taylor has since moved (or beenmoved) sideways into a job exam-ining the digital broadcasting futureacross a number of cities.

If one looks closely though,budgetary constraints at RN haveactually been apparent for sometime. Over the last year or twothere’s been a shift from packagedprogramming into live program-ming. Packaged programming byits very nature is more considered,better produced, and more expen-sive. Needless to say, live pro-gramming doesn’t need editing. Inrecent years one live RN program,Life Matters, has had its timeslotexpanded. This year, GeraldineDoogue is presenting a liveSaturday breakfast program.

If there’s a silver lining aroundthe dark clouds at RN, it’s theappointment of Jane Connors totry and unravel the mess. Friendsof the ABC who rallied at the

Opera House in 2001 wouldremember her brave and passion-ate speech in defence of the ABC.As a former EP in the ABC’s SocialHistory Unit, she’s also beenresponsible for some of the ABC’sfinest radio programs, including theepic 100 Years In A Dayback in2002.

Connors has been put in chargeof an internal review of program-ming that’s due to be submitted bythe end of May. Possible outcomesmooted so far include: RN runningmore repeats, changing the pro-gram briefs, splicing more musicinto the interviews to pad out time,and cutting shows altogether.

Recent media reports suggestRN’s budget takes up $13 to $14million from ABC radio's total bud-get of $90 million. The budget cri-sis has brought many RN support-ers out of the woodwork, voicingtheir concerns on online forumsand the letter pages of daily news-papers.

RADIO NATIONAL BUDGET CRISIS

FABC (NSW) Inc. Executive CommitteePresident - Gary Cook

Phone: 9810 3358 email: [email protected]

Treasurer James BuchananPhone 9371 5621

email [email protected]

Secretary - Janet CrennanPhone 9810 1758

email: [email protected]

Membership Secretary - Carolyn GreenPhone 9144 1351 or 0417 650 443

[email protected]

Update Editor: Alison RahillPhone 02 8204 6906

[email protected]

Bold programs like Late Night Live in the Solomons make Radio National a national treasure

CALLING ALL RN LISTENERS!

HELP LOBBY FOR MORERESOURCES FOR RN

Write the to ABC Board, with a copyto the ABC Managing Director NOW.

The ABC Board has a responsibilityto cease hiding the ABC's funding diffi-culties from the community and to enlistits support to pressure the governmentfor adequate funding.

Let them know you will not acceptany further loss in the quality and diver-sity of RN programming.

Write to: Donald McDonald,Chairman, ABC Board, GPO Box 9994,Sydney 2001 & Russell Balding, ABCManaging Director

Send copies to FABC: [email protected]

or PO Box 1391, North Sydney 2059

REWIND has indeed been axed,and yet again we have an ABC man-agement decision that defies compre-hension. After endless reruns of theTudors on Sunday nights — where welearnt nothing new — at last we had aclever, revealing, home-grown pieceof investigative history, presented bythe incomparable Michael Cathcart.

This is what Tony Moore had tosay about Rewind in an article argu-ing for Australian history on our tele-vision and cinema screens:

Factual has long been the sickman of ABC TV and we can onlyhope its three new heads can makeit a clearing house for knowledge,critical thinking and creative story-telling. Factual must first recreate acentre of in-house documentaryinnovation, establishing units ofexcellence in history, social issues,culture and science equal to thestandards set by the Religious andNatural History Units. These unitsshould be shockers with brightyoung things who are not beholdento outdated TV rules from the lastcentury who are allowed to inventsome new rules and to do theirknowledge thing. Which brings meto the ABC’s latest attempt toaddress the history gap – Rewind.

The Rewind unit employs innova-tive stylists and professional histori-ans, and has got off to a bouncystart over the past two Sundays inwhat Ruth Ritchie might call the‘Bonnet slot’. The stories are aes-thetically envelope stretching andbeautifully shot and edited, the sto-rytelling is engaging and there is aplayful element that should beenhanced. The stories on the mys-terious Pyjama Girl and the tragedyof Billy Hughes’ society daughtertook us down unexpected pathsinto social milieus we don’t usuallyencounter in Australian history.Rewind could be the basis of acentre of real innovation and histor-ical excellence if senior managersencourage staff to take risks andtell us stories we don’t know.

Tony Moore ‘ChannellingHistory’ www.artshub.com.au

Rewind unwoundABC FOLDS OVERFILE FOOTAGE, DIGSIN OVER DRAFTCODE OF CONDUCT

After a struggle of more than ayear, the ABC’s Content RightsManagement Division has finallybacked down on its requirement fordocumentary film makers to obtainpermission from the subject of thefootage before its re-use. The ABC’smotivation seems to have been anattempt to avoid embarrassment orcensure by government politicians inwhat was an election year. Howeverthe decision was tantamount toallowing politicians to veto the use ofnews footage in documentaries.

The issue came to a head earlyin 2004, when the documentarymaker Judy Rymer approached theABC to ask it to licence the use ofsome old news clips for a four-parteducational documentary series,Punished not Protected . Thefootage involved was of public state-ments by ministers in the Howardgovernment during the children over-board affair in the lead-up to the2001 election.

Rymer was astounded when toldthat she couldn’t use the news clips,unless she first got permission touse them from the politiciansinvolved - the Prime Minister, PhilipRuddock, Peter Reith and AmandaVanstone. The refusal hinged on thedocumentary being 'cause or advo-cacy related.'

Media Watch highlighted theissue in July, provoking outrage inthe documentary film industry. ABCstaff also revolted at what they sawas a fundamental compromise of theABC’s editorial integrity. ABC staffunions, the Australian ScreenDirectors Association and theFriends embarked on a campaign forthe policy to be overturned.

The backflip eventually came justahead of the ABC’s appearance atSenate Estimates in February, withthe ABC dropping the offendingclause from its archival licensing pol-icy. ASDA Executive DirectorRichard Harris called the result ‘agreat outcome for Australian inde-pendent documentary filmmakers.’

On another issue, the ABC is dig-ging in over its Draft Code ofConduct, highlighted in the last issueof Update. The latest version of thecontroversial Draft Code hasremoved the attempt to seize thewinnings of any ABC staff awardedcash prizes. However it is still tryingto regulate their private activities out-side work hours.

If implemented ABC staff wouldhave to advise their supervisors ofmemberships of any outside organi-sations, so the ABC can determineif there is a 'conflict of interest;potential, actual or perceived.' Thelatest joint union submission on thematter says the draft constitutes anunreasonable and probably unlawfulincursion on the rights of their mem-bers. The submission also criticiseswhat it calls the confused drafting ofthe proposal, adding that the finalresult would be open to inconsistentand possibly capricious application.

It’s worth remembering that twoyears ago, a hypersensitive ABCmanagement found RN’s StephenCrittenden guilty of ‘serious miscon-duct’ for writing an article on theclash of Islam and the West for theSydney Morning Herald. Meanwhilea number of other ABC personalitiesengage in a variety of seeminglyunregulated outside activities – fromwriting newspaper columns to pre-senting lifestyle shows on pay televi-sion. That decision even had GerardHenderson complaining that theABC was being "timid and censori-ous."

bb

�Update� includes material from theSouth Australia �Friends� publication

�Background Briefing�, compiled and edited by

Joan Laing.In �Update� this material is

credited as:

bb

ABC Shines In Tsunami Tragedy

The ABC’s reporting of the South Asian tsuna-mi was nothing short of magnificent, particularlythe work by Indonesia Correspondent TimPalmer. While most Australians were still recov-ering from Christmas, Palmer was on his way toAceh. Having witnessed the devastation wroughtby the tsunami at Aitape in Papua New Guinea in1998 he had an inkling of the scale of the disaster.

He flew to Medan in northern Sumatra with the

ABC’s Jakarta producer Ari Wuryantama anddrove to the provincial capital Banda Aceh. Hewas the first western reporter to arrive in the dev-astated province, arriving at the same time as al-Jazeera, literally days ahead of major worldbroadcasters such as the BBC and CNN. Hisheart-rending pictures and accounts of the car-nage in Banda Aceh and down the west coast ofAceh were all world exclusives, told not with thebreathless self-importance of some foreign corre-spondents, but with humanity.

Particularly telling was Palmer’s report fromLeupung, the west coast town where the tsunamiwashed on to limestone cliffs and back out killing95% of the population.

Palmer was ably supported by correspondentsPeter Lloyd, Geoff Thompson and later on by anumber of others including China Correspondent John Taylor, Philip Williams from London, andPNG Correspondent Shane McLeod. While theABC presented an overview of the disaster thatspanned the whole Indian Ocean, commercialnetworks tended to lose the big picture by chas-ing the stories of Australian victims and sur-vivors.

ABC Managing Director Russell Balding calledthe coverage, ‘…testament not only to the dedi-cation of our news and current affairs colleaguesbut also to the commitment of the ABC to main-tain overseas bureaux. Only the ABC had thecapacity and local knowledge to get the storyfirst. That is not a boast. It is our job.’

Peter Lloyd Geoff Thompson

Tim Palmer in Banda Aceh

TheGovernmentShould RebuildRadio Australia

Kevin RuddOppositionspokesmanon foreignaffairs writesafter thetsunami

“There is some criticismcontained in this point, theGovernment should rebuildRadio Australia. We havealready attacked theGovernment's decision to sellRadio Australia's massive CoxPeninsula transmitters severalyears ago.

Prior to that, RadioAustralia could broadcast aclear signal across all ofSoutheast Asia, South Asiaand much of the Indian Ocean.Radio Australia's remainingtransmitters are only capableof broadcasting to easternIndonesia and the southwestPacific. To supplement, RadioAustralia now has to beg, bor-row and buy transmissionspace from other private trans-mitters across the region,resulting in an erosion of thehistorical predictability of theRadio Australia broadcast tothe wider region.

We now find ourselves inthe bizarre situation that if wecommit to a large scale, long-term role in the rebuilding oftsunami-affected areas acrossSouth and Southeast Asia wewill have denied ourselvesmuch of the broadcast capabilityto tell the communities acrossthe region what we are doing.

The Government knowsthis is a dumb decision. On theback of this disaster it shouldfix it. “

The Australian 5 Jan 05

It’s worth noting that a recentrecommendation to boostRadio Australia’s funding wasignored. Sheena Macleanwrote the following article inThe Australian in June last year.

In the middle of 2004 a par-liamentary inquiry intoAustralia’s relationship withIndonesia urged increasedfunding for the ABC’s RadioAustralia to enable it to resumehigh levels of programminginto Indonesia.

The report of the inquirywas tabled on 31 May. It saysthat Radio Australia ‘is anextremely powerful and rela-tively cost-effective’ means ofreaching into Indonesia andpromoting greater understand-ing of Australia. It recommendsthat the ABC’s internationalradio and online service dra-matically increase its program-ming, restoring it to the previ-ous high levels of the 1970sand ‘80s.

It recommends theAustralian BroadcastingAuthority examine the cost andfeasibility of Radio Australiausing spare short-wave capaci-ty so it can broadcast intoIndonesia on multiple frequen-cies.

In the 1970s and ‘80s itsIndonesian audience was esti-mated at 20 million. It is nowdown to about 5.4 million. ‘Ouraudience figures are lowernow than they were but youhave to take into account thatbetween 1997 and 2000 wehad no transmission whatsoev-er,’ says Jean-Gabriel Manguy,head of Radio Australia.

bb Cox Peninsula Transmitter

Give up now!The ABA has dismissed the vast

majority of complaints lodged by theformer Communications MinisterRichard Alston against the ABC’s radioprogram AM. In the final wash-up, theAuthority determined that the programhad failed on four occasions to make"every reasonable effort" to ensure theprogram was balanced and impartialin its coverage of the invasion of Iraqfrom the 21st of March to the 11th ofApril, 2003.

So after almost two years ofintense scrutiny and their passagethrough five layers of internal, inde-pendent and external complaint reviewprocesses, 21 of Alston’s original 68complaints were upheld in some form.

Earlier in the process, the ABC’sIndependent Complaints ReviewPanel (ICRP) found 17 breaches – 12

for so-called ‘serious bias,’ 4 for edito-rialising, and one for an inadequatedisclosure of sources.

Most of the complaints upheld per-tained to reporters or presenters con-struing or attributing feelings or opin-ions to US officials that the complaintreviewers felt amounted to speculation.

The ICRP and ABA both tookissue with reporters and presentersshowing what many people wouldconsider healthy scepticism and usingterms such as spin-doctoring or propa-ganda in reference to various spokes-men and women for the U.S. govern-ment and military. ABA Acting Chair,Lyn Maddock said that ‘While scepti-cism and probing questions are a use-ful way to explore issues, when a pro-gram uses tendentious language inconnection with a controversial matter,listeners are likely to understand thatthe program favours a particular viewof the issue.’

Overall the ABA found that AMpresented a range of views and per-spectives during the period in ques-tion, and was balanced.

However in a bizarre conclusionthat would seem to say more aboutthe regulator than the ABC, MsMaddock went on to say that the com-plaint findings compromised the quali-ty of AM’s coverage of the Iraq War.

At the time a draft copy of thereport was leaked to Media Watch lastyear, David Marr called it probably thesilliest ABA report he’d read in thethree years he’d been presentingMedia Watch, and further evidencethat the Authority doesn’t really knowhow journalism works.

ABC Managing Director RussellBalding welcomed the part of thereport that found AM’s reporting wasbalanced, and noted that the breachesrelated to a few minutes out of manyhours of coverage of the war

He also voiced continuing con-cerns that the basis on which the ABAseeks to justify its conclusions isflawed, and said he remains of theview that AM's extensive coverage ofthe war in Iraq was professional, com-prehensive and balanced.

ABC JOURNALIST VINDICATEDThe following excerpts are from Adjudication No.1257

by the Australian Press Council (adjudicated October2004; re-issued December 2004)

The Press Council has upheld a complaint by anAustralian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) correspon-dent against the Sydney Daily Telegraph over a bylinedopinion column dealing with the aftermath of the killing ofan Australian-born 15-year-old girl by a suicide bomber inJerusalem.

The Piers Akerman column claimed that the corre-spondent, Tim Palmer, had revealed either "an appallingabsence of any moral compass" or "a total lack of under-standing of the [Israeli-Palestinian] conflict".

At the core of the dispute was an attempt by MrPalmer to organise a feature story based on interviewswith both Mr Roth and the father of the Palestinianbomber. At first Mr Roth agreed, but that was before heknew that the bomber's father was to be included in thestory. Mr Roth was immediately outraged at what heregarded as gross insensitivity and an attempt to createa false symmetry between the two deaths. Mr Palmerdropped the project.

The Piers Akerman commentary criticised Mr Palmer

and the ABC's "babbling" about balance, asking: "Does it[the ABC] believe there can be some balance, somesymmetry, some moral equivalence in presenting thefather of a murdered teenager who spent her school holi-days providing care for severely handicapped childrenand the father of a young man who believed it was hisreligious duty to murder innocent people?"

In his complaint Mr Palmer says that since the projectwas dropped, Mr Akerman could not possibly haveknown what form the story would have taken or how thetwo projected interviews would have been used.

Mr Palmer, who says he was on the scene of thebombing within five minutes, quotes a paragraph fromthe report he provided for the ABC programme AM a daylater: "When the Islamic Jihad group first claimed respon-sibility for this blast, it described the action as heroic, butthis was cowardly butchery. Indiscriminate in cuttingdown the old and the very young, it is believed as manyas six of the dead are infants."

The published opinion was based on an assumption ofthe facts, without seeking any input from the ABC jour-nalist. As a result, the article was unbalanced and unfair-ly derogatory of Mr Palmer, characterising him in a man-ner not justified by the matters raised in the column. Forthese reasons the complaint is upheld.

ALSTON’S FINAL FAILURE, ABA’S BOB EACH WAY

Trish Bolton lectures in MediaStudies at Swinburne University. She’sa member of a working party oncross-media ownership set up byFriends of the ABC. She wrote thisarticle for the website NewMatilda.com in February.

In July it is predicted that cross-media ownership rules will be abol-ished by the Howard Government andAunty might be in a spot of bother.

Those of us feeling a touch para-noid about Packer owning Fairfax, orMurdoch getting his hands on a televi-sion station, are somewhat consoledby the presence of the ABC. Yet howrealistic is it to expect that an under-funded and besieged Aunty will beable to perform her watchdog rolewhen the pack is baying for herblood?

The ABC has already paid dearlyfor scrutinising government and bigbusiness without fear or favour, andfor behaving as if she's a guardian ofthe Fourth Estate. Politicians of allpersuasions have been cross withher; most recently it was nasty oldDick Alston, but Paul Keating, BobHawke, not to mention Aunty'sfavourite nephew, Jeff Kennett, haveall been equally displeased with hercoverage during their period in office.

Let's not point out the bleedingobvious here.

But nothing holds a candle to thepresent government's war of attrition;boards stacked with liberal cronies,budgets decimated and reporters vili-fied. A now vulnerable Aunty has tobend over backwards to please thehand that feeds her, bowing to pop-ulist demand, and even lifting herskirts, to chase ratings.

Outsourced and demoralised asshe is, she's had more than a littlesuccess to boast of to a board moreinterested in dollars than a Charterthat talks about the public interest. Itwould be churlish not to acknowledgethe quality of some popular program-ming but imprudent not to considerwhat is being lost in order to seducenew audiences who want little more

from Aunty than for her to entertainthem.

And what does this mean for someof Aunty's lesser known relativesincluding Radio National; a publicsphere of ideas where interviews lastlonger than a soundbite and journal-ists investigate to bring us content thatrestores some balance to the pervad-ing dross, which if you let it, mightamuse you to death.

Radio National is intellectual, eso-teric and sometimes challenging, butas Philip Adams often reminds us,only Gladys is listening. He's not jok-ing; with ratings at less than three percent, you had better enjoy it while youcan – such an under-performer is sureto be on Howard's hit list.

ABC's flagship radio current affairsshow, AM (along with The WorldToday and PM) had better watch itsback, too; AM was accused of morethan sixty counts of serious bias whenreporting the allied invasion of Iraq. Asubsequent independent investigationseverely embarrassed the HowardGovernment and Senator Alston, thethen Federal CommunicationsMinister, who had made the allega-tions, by finding all but two of thecharges unfounded. It's not surprisingthen, that a government used - with afew notable exceptions - to a syco-phantic press, becomes incensedwhen held accountable.

Aunty has, in her many incarna-tions, under intense political examina-tion and often deprived circum-stances, bonded Australians far andwide, in cities, country regions and theoutback; a network of diverse, yetshared identity, which talked of nationand nationhood, community and kin-ship. She has not however, spared usa 'warts-and-all' look at ourselves.

A very first memory of ABC televi-sion was a Four Corners episode thatbrought home to me the absoluteneglect of Aboriginal people, which inmy outer suburban enclave, hadnever intruded upon my conscious-ness, let alone my conscience. It wasan awakening that could not, indeedcannot take place on commercial tele-

vision, where national identity isdefined by narrow and superficial rep-resentations of what it means to beAustralian.

Aunty, once proud of nurturing hercountry's cultural heart, now has fewopportunities to offer the artists, writ-ers, orchestras et al, the creativesanctuary previously found at theABC. Media barons, while clearlydevotees of popular culture, steeraway from anything that might alien-ate the large audiences advertisersseek.

Their financial interests are muchbetter served by imported fare (andI'm not talking SBS world movieshere) than pleasing a measly two oreven five percent of the Australianpopulation.

There is no doubt that monopolypower in Australia's media is set toincrease to levels that puts democracydangerously at risk. Aunty, whosecommercial yet editorially independentally, Fairfax, likely to be swallowedwhole by Packer, will have no-one tocry wolf when she too, gets 'doneover'.

Aunty’s been starved of funding,beaten into submission and foundwanting. But she's still ourABC and her Australian fami-ly needs her more than ever.

Come in Spinner Crikey columnist "Outside Centre"

has drawn attention to the popularityof ABC radio commentator KerryO’Keefe. More than 500 fans linedup outside the ABC Shop Brisbane’sIndooroopilly Shopping Town beforeXmas to get the 70s era spinner tosign copies of his autobiography,“According to Skull." (ABC Books)“Outside Centre” noted that O’Keefecalls ABC cricket matches inBrisbane, Sydney and Melbourne,but doesn’t get to go to other capi-tals because of "budget restraints".

bb

An even harder time for Aunty

BEST OF THE FABC BULLETIN

The FABC Bulletin is an email update with the latestnews about the ABC. It’s available to all members whosubscribe to the FABCList.

3 Dec - LANDLINE UNCHANGED IN 2005 The one-hour program "will return in 2005 at midday

on Sundays". There had been rumours of a cut to a half-hour format. Apparently the decision was made afterintense lobbying. (ABC Media Release 29/11, TheAustralian 2/12)

18 Feb - JONATHON SHIER: DUIIn court to face a drink driving charge "The former

ABC chief Jonathan Shier told police he would not havedriven his silver Saab convertible had he realised thatfour glasses of red wine would put him over the limit."The former ABC boss was fined and banned from driv-ing. Apparently he has not found new employment and is "living off his capital". ( SMH 13/01)

18 Feb - COST OF ABC BULLYING DEPENDS ON PERSPECTIVE

After a Senate estimates hearing focused on bullyingof staff ABC MD Russell Balding said that $1.98M wasnot the amount paid out for psychological injuries. It wasthe total workers compensation premium for 2003-04.The staff union says the premium has increased 63%because of the bullying. (The Australian 17/02)

1 Mar - MURDOCH COLUMNIST JANETALBRECHTSEN MAKES ABC BOARD

The appointment for 5 years was immediately contro-versial (SMH 24/02). John Gallagher was reappointed fora second term. David Marr said he was stunned and thatAlbrechtsen had been exposed two years ago as "anextremely sloppy journalist" (Yahoo/ABC biznews 24/02).On AM the next morning Albrechtsen denied any conflictof interest, saying she was not a News employee but acontractor (ABC AM 25/02). She later said that "eliminat-ing bias from the ABC" would be a major priority for her(SMH 27/02). The ABC Staff Union said she has "no rel-evant broadcasting or program-making experience" andrepeated its call for reform of the method of boardappointments ( CPSU 25/02). Albrechtsen displayed hersolicitor skills in a letter to the Herald repeating her state-ment that she was not a Murdoch employee but an"independent contractor".

1 Mar - COINCIDENTAL DOSH FOR REGIONALRADIO

The day after Albrechtsen's appointment, it wasannounced that more money would go to "a new subsidyscheme" for regional communities. The Government willallocate $1.5 million to enable up to 50 rural and regionalcommunities to access five ABC radio services, includingRadio National and NewsRadio. The money will go toinstalling transmitters."

ONLINE FORUM FEEDBACK

The FABC List is a forum for passionate debate on allmatters pertaining to Aunty.

Here’s a taste of some of the issues that FABC mem-bers have debated over the last few months.

The F* Word . Janet Simpson took issue with somefruity language in the Summer book reading on RN, inparticular the repetitive use of the F* Word. Janet saidshe looks to the ABC to present higher standards andwondered whether the ABC was chasing rating by lower-ing standards. This prompted several responses. DarceCassidy said he could remember it being used in a pro-gram he produced on then-Radio 2 more than thirtyyears ago. Jill Keogh said that the f-word was liberatedin the 50s by the Beat Generation. She said she wouldknow because she was there!

Carnivale . Some folks on the Central Coastapproached FABC Board member Klaas Woldring won-dering why the mysterious American-produced dramahad been shown at all. It wasn’t a mystery to Ron Daleand Ariel Marguin who said they loved it. Comments tothe List indicated Carnivale had an appeal across a num-ber of age groups. FABC Webmaster Mike Hudson saidhis two sons didn’t miss an episode. Neither did JohnNeilson – who describes himself as "73 going on 16."

New Dimensions program on RN. Richard Gates ofEvans Head asked "Please, please oh please deliver usfrom the drivel served up in New Dimensions." AnnieNielsen from the Parramatta Branch didn’t agree. Shethought each of the programs she’d listened to wasexcellent. Roger Gould thought the program was a"mind-opener."

Successful complaints. Moya Crowe also reportedon her success in getting the ABC to address two of hercomplaints. Moya emailed ABC TV to complain about thenew weather map being hard to read. She got a replythe next day to say others had said the same and that itwas going to be altered.

As a wearer of hearing aids she also asked if TheWorld Today could adjust the level of Eleanor Hall'svoice to nearer the level of the taped reports, so she did-n’t have to be constantly turning the volume on her hear-ing aids up and down. She got another immediate and apositive response.

To follow the debate on the FABCList and receive theFABC Bulletin, send an e-mail to:

[email protected] with SUBSCRIBE as the only entry in the Subject line and your full name and phone number in the body of the e-mail.

If at any stage you don’t wish to receive theseBulletins simply reply to your e-mail and write"Unsubscribe Bulletin" in the subject line.

The WalkleyAwards History

“Australia's journalists knowthat winning a Walkley is a rea-son to celebrate. It is the recog-nition by one's peers that spe-cial initiative deserves a specialreward. To the winner it meansall those years of training andbeing barked at by demandingeditors were not entirely invain".- John Hurst, author ofThe Walkley Awards

The annual Walkley Awardsrecognize excellence inAustralian journalism across allmediums including print, televi-sion, radio, photographic andonline media. The prestigiousGold Walkley is considered thepinnacle of journalistic achieve-ment and the awards are akinonly to the esteemed PulitzerPrizes.

The Walkleys were estab-lished in 1956, with five cate-gories, by Ampol Petroleumfounder Sir William GastonWalkley. He envisaged awardsthat recognised emerging talent

in the Australian media. Sincethen, winning stories havechronicled Australia's history,people and events.

Today, the Walkleys hasgrown to more than 30 awardcategories with an estimated1000 entries pouring in eachyear as journalists around thecountry aspire for the pinnacleof Australian journalisticachievement.

Over the past 46 years someof the top names in Australianjournalism have been honouredby the awards including: KerryO'Brien, Mark Davis, MikeSteketee, Tony Koch, MarianWilkinson, Helen Dalley, LizJackson, Chris Masters, BillLeak, Ron Tandberg, EvanWhitton, Alan Hall, Adele Horin,Paul Bongiorno, PeterNicholson, Jenny Coopes,Monica Attard, David DareParker and many more.

The Walkley Awards havecontinued to develop with theever-changing media, adaptingexisting categories and recog-nising new areas of journalism.

ABC’s WalkleyTriumph

Congratulations to all the ABC winnersin the annual Walkley Awards forExcellence in Journalism.

The ABC’s Foreign Affairs Editor PeterCave won the awards for Radio Newsand TV News for his reports into the cap-ture of the American hostage ThomasHamill in Iraq. The reports were a world-wide scoop and the footage even endedup in Mike Moore’s Fahrenheit 9/11.

Rafael Epstein and Nick McKenziewon the Radio Current Affairs award fortheir report into allegations of police cor-ruption in Victoria, while the RN’s LateNight Live team won the Radio Featurecategory for their "Solomon IslandsSeries."

Media Watch won the TV CurrentAffairs award for its piece "Cash forComment II and Professor Flint’s FanMail." Lateline’s Tony Jones also took outthe Walkley for Broadcast Interviewing.

update Print Post Approved PP 245059/00002

Update is published four times a year by Friends of the ABC NSW, P.O. Box 1391, North Sydney 2059. Phone 9810 3358 To become a member phone 9990 0600 or visit our web site at: www.fabcnsw.org.au/Extracts from newspapers and other publications appearing in Update do not necessarily reflect members’ views. Update goes to all members of FABC (NSW) Inc., as part of the membership fee. Update is also supplied to journalists, politiciansand libraries across Australia. It is produced and edited in Sydney but contributions are welcome from NSW country and inter-state branches. Material may be freely quoted or reproduced from the newsletter provided the source is acknowledged and repro-duction is sent to FABC s President Gary Cook, Editor Alison Rahill, Layout, format and assembly Irwin Kurtz. Unattributed text is bythe editor. email: [email protected] UpdatePost The Editor

C/—FABC UpdatePO Box 1391North Sydney NSW 2059

30 Years in 30 DaysIn January 2005, triple j - Australia’s only national

youth network - celebrated its 30th anniversary. To markthis major milestone in its - and indeed the ABC’s histo-ry - triple j broadcast, across all programs, 30 Years in30 Days a special series of features and segments.These reflected the events that have shaped the net-work, music and Australian youth culture over the lastthree decades.

triple j‘s significance was highlighted with mini docu-mentaries looking at its stand against music censorship,its influence on the live music scene, its role in

fostering Australian music and the part it has played in Australian youth culture since it opened as 2JJ inSydney in 1975. In 1981 the station moved to the FMband as 2JJJ then by 1990 had expanded to the triple jnetwork, available in capital cities and Newcastle. By 1996 triple j could be heard in 48 regional areas.

30 Years in 30 days kicked off on 19 January with thebest of the musicians who have been unearthed bytriple j in the last few years paying musical homage tothose who went before them.

STOP PRESSAlison Rahill has resigned as Editor of Update. We

thank her for her efforts of the past two issues.

TOUGH TIMES FOR PUBLIC BROADCASTERS

It’s been a bad few months allround for the world’s public broad-casters.

In December, the first round ofextensive job cuts was announced atthe world’s foremost public broad-caster, the BBC. 1,900 posts wereaxed from support services and thefactual and learning department.Most of the first wave of support cutswill come from the BBC’s humanresources department, with othersubstantial cuts in finance and prop-erty, marketing, policy and legal, andstrategy and distribution.

The exact scope of the cutsremains a subject of much conjec-ture, with estimates varying from5000 jobs to up to 10,000 in a work-force of 27,000. Several commercialventures are also for sale or invitingjoint venture partners in an effort todirect an extra £320 million a yearinto improving programs.

British Union leaders say the jobcuts are the biggest in BBC history

and claim theycould destroy the heart of the cor-poration. Furtherredundancies areexpected to beannounced soonin other areas,including news.

On the 1st ofMarch a Britishgovernment green

paper on the future of the BBC advo-cated the scrapping the BBC's boardof governors, and replacing it with anindependent board of trustees. Thenew trust members will need relevantexperience and background and beappointed by the Department forCulture, Media and Sport under theNolan rules.

British Culture Secretary TessaJowell guaranteed the BBC a 10-year charter from 2007 – but saysthe government would conduct areview of alternative methods offunding the BBC and investigate thepossibility of a subscription-basedsystem before the end of the nextcharter period.

In Japan, the Chairman of theJapan’s national broadcaster, NHK,Katsuji Ebisawa, resigned on the25th of January after months of pub-lic pressure for him to take the blamefor a series of financial scandals inthe corporation. The controversieshave led to a budgetary crisis atJapan’s public broadcaster, with over100,000 households refusing to payJapan’s mandatory licence fees.

The scandal began erupted whena producer was found to haveembezzled more than half a milliondollars in funds for program produc-tion. Several other staff memberswere also reported later to haveengaged in embezzlement, fictitiousbusiness trips and irregular account-ing operations.

Ebisawa also came under fire forordering NHK producers not tobroadcast live his testimony as a wit-ness on the scandals at a parliamen-tary committee hearing. The laststraw came when an NHK whistle-blower alleged that the network hadbowed to political pressure to tonedown a program on Japan's wartimeatrocities.

The ABC will begin transmissionof a new free-to-air digital TV chan-nel - ABC2 - on 7 March, marking asignificant development in free-to-airdigital TV in Australia. ABC2 willbroadcast a wide range of new andrepeat programs including children’s,regional, documentary and arts aswell as international and regionalnews coverage.

ABC2 will be a complementaryservice to the main ABC TV channel,offering time-shifted programming bywhich audiences can see favouriteprograms again or catch programsthey missed on the main channel.These will include ForeignCorrespondent, Australian Story, Atthe Movies, Catalyst and GardeningAustralia. It will also offer a range ofnew programs.

The addition of the new digitalchannel to ABC services means thatfamilies and children can now, by

switching between the main channeland ABC2 each weekday, access atotal of 13 hours of continuous, safeand trusted ABC Kids programming.The channel will also cater for youngteens.

The new digital channel will havea strong regional and rural focus withrepeat screenings of Landline andthe opportunity for

viewers around the country to viewall eight versions of Stateline. A newprime time fifteen-minute regionalnews program, Australia Wide will beexclusive to ABC2. Internationalnews and analysis programs will bean integral part of the ABC2 sched-ule with the ABC Asia Pacific TV pro-gram Hemispheres being broadcastin Australia for the first time.

An innovative component of ABC2will be the use of content created forboth broadband and television out-

put. This meansaudiences will beable to see someprograms (suchas AustraliaWide) on ABC2or watch them asvideo on demandon the companion ABC Broadbandservice online at abc.net.au/broad-band. Other integrated TV andbroadband programming will includea variety of regularly up-dated news,business, sport and rural bulletins.

ABC2 will be on channel 21 onfree to air digital television, on chan-nel 126 on Foxtel Digital and Austar,on channel 22 on TransACT inCanberra and on channel 20 onNeighbourhood Cable in Victoria.

inside the abc feb. 2005 No. 29

ABC Launches New Digital TV Channel

BBC staff held aday of action onMarch 2

Adam Singer is a Content BoardMember of the British communica-tions regulator, Ofcom.

This is an abridged transcript of aspeech he gave at Britain’s Voice ofthe Listener & Viewer’s 10thInternational Conference at TheRoyal Society in London in February.

The full speech can be found onthe VLV’s website at www.vlv.org.uk.

Public Service Broadcasting hascreated major institutions of publicservice provision. But we mustremember it is the fate of every insti-tution to meet its Martin Luther. TheCatholic Church could have defeatedLuther but it could not defeat thecombination of Luther and the newtechnology of the printing press. Theprinting press was to the CatholicChurch what multi-channel televisionis proving to be to today’s institution-al public broadcasters.

The Music Hall met its Luther inthe guise of The Cinema andTelevision.

The British Motorcycle Industrymet its Luther in the guise of SoichiroHonda.

The most powerful telephonecompany in the world, Bell Telephone,met its Luther in the guise of JudgeGreen, who broke it up in the ‘80s,and last week the final part of Bell -AT&T - was gobbled up: an unthink-able thought in the first seventyyears of the last Century.

Great institutions produce gloriesfor us all, but they survive in directproportion to their ability to maintaintheir relevance.

So different eras produce differenteconomics, and different glories, andthis is the issue Public ServiceBroadcasting is facing as it movesout of it’s cathedral age, and contem-plates what form it should take to berelevant to a mass information age.

The key to analysing what is hap-pening in television is simple. Theprinciple is there is no such thing astechnology, there is only an ever-

falling cost line. In the ‘90s it cost £4million per annum to transmit to thehome on satellite; it now costs under£500,000. The falling cost of technol-ogy changes the nature of programcontent. ‘Big Brother’ only existsbecause of the falling cost of cam-eras. As television distribution andreception gets ever cheaper youhave more television signals, audi-ences fragment, and it gets harder tomaintain a monolith like the BBC. Ifaudience share - as more of uswatch and use alternative services –falls, the harder it will be to sustainthe BBC.

The choice is how do you harnessand ride these economic forces foryour own ends? The one choice youdon’t have is to ignore them. Youcan’t slow it down, because we alldemand the benefit of constantfalling costs. For example, nearlyevery one of you has an electronicdevice that takes pictures, video,stores music, sends written mes-sages, pulls down information, playsvideo games and you can talk topeople on it – it’s a mobile phone. Ateach purchase you are all signing apact with the devil that says you arecontributing to this economic force.You can’t have those things and iso-late television from that force.

So the cathedral-like PublicService Broadcasting of yesteryearthat produced programmes likeCivilization and The Ascent of Manstart to change into new forms ofPublic Service Broadcasting. Ofcourse as a society you can elect tohave any Public Service Broadcast-ing that the citizen is prepared to payfor. But there are some questionsyou need to ask. Who is this publicbroadcasting for?

If everyone has a mobile phonecapable of receiving video from theinternet, as you all will have in tenyears, what form does Public ServiceBroadcasting take on that? If muse-ums can digitise their collections andput them out on broadband is thisnot a new Public Service Broad-cast-ing that needs to be encouraged?

In this world of new PSB the riseof cheap storage means that continu-

ous streams of Public Service Broad-casting are not necessary, as youmove to an on-demand world. Youpull down the public service pro-gramme at the time most convenientto you.

As fragmentation and hard drivestorage increases, advertising isgoing to be harder to sustain. Theunderlying pressure over the next tenyears will be the rise of on-demandrevenues. Today this is being drivenby music services like Napster andApple’s iTunes, where you candownload music tracks from theinternet for 79 pence per tune. Musicis always the first into a new, digital,economic model, and where musicgoes television always follows. If youdoubt this downloading phenomenon,last December, the BBC streamedand downloaded 6 million programmes.

The ghastly truth is that if youdon’t have a mobile phone, don’t usethe Internet, and you are still receiv-ing television as an off-air, five chan-nel, analogue signal, you are as rele-vant to the future of this debate as atelex machine in a world of e-mail.

Nowhere have I said that changeis good, but we can’t preserve PublicService Broadcasting in aspic, norshould we. What we can do is keepreinventing PSB, so that it is rele-vant, and desired. The question weshould be asking after theCatholicism of 80 years of institution-al Public Service Broadcasting is,"What in this new technology worlddoes Reformation Public ServiceBroadcasting look like, and how dowe help create a new and different,but equally important, form of PublicService Broadcasting?"

What is Ofcom?

Ofcom is the regulator for the UKcommunications industries, withresponsibilities across television,radio, telecommunications and wire-less communications services.

Ofcom exists to further the inter-ests of citizen-consumers as thecommunications industries enter thedigital age.

THE FUTURE OF PUBLIC BROADCASTING IN THE DIGITAL AGE

NORTHERN RIVERSThe Northern Rivers branch of the Friends of the

ABC began the year with a visit by recently retiredABC radio current affairs presenter John Highfield.John was the guest of honour at an inaugural meetingof the Tweed sub branch. 20 members attended thefunction that was held on Saturday 19 February at theTweed/Gold Coast Campus of Southern Cross University.

The next evening John was keynote speaker at theBangalow Bowling Club where 70 members attendedand were enthralled by his lively address. .John vividlyrecounted experiences as a foreign correspondent inGermany, Ireland and South Africa. His recollections atthe national level included insights gained from infor-mal press briefings with Malcolm Fraser, GoughWhitlam and John Howard in the 1970s.

John Highfield expressed concern over a creepingcorporatism within the ABC. However he felt thatregional radio in particular played an important role inreflecting community views and promoting democracyat a grassroots level.

It was great to have such a well-known ABC identityvisiting the North Coast and his visit was given a highprofile by ABC North Coast, as well as the NorthernRivers Echo, Byron Shire Echo and the Northern Starnewspapers.

Branch members appreciated the role that he hasplayed in addressing threats to the national broadcast-er - especially in relation to access by advocacygroups and film makers to ABC archival material.

The next committee meeting will be held in mid Apriland the AGM for the branch will be held in May. Detailswill be provided in the local press and on the branchweb site.

Neville Jennings

AROUND THE BRANCHES

John Highfield addresses Northern Rivers Friends

A packed Bangalow Bowling Club, Northern Rivers Branch

Visit La Perouse with a Tour of Bare Island

Sunday 17 AprilLocation: 11.30 tour of La Perouse Museum –

at your leisure (not organised)12.00 – 1.15 Picnic (BYO)

with other FABC in park overlooking Bare Island1.30 pm tour of Bare Island

(with National Parks & Wildlife guides)Before departing visit the Snake Man (optional)

$10 per person; $8.00 concession for Bare Island TourPlease ring to book for the Bare Island tour

as numbers are limited.

Ring: Gillian on Ph: 9144 2891, Ireen on Ph: 9745 4487, Jason on Ph: 9489 1420 to secure your place.

Payment via credit card or cheque. Bookings will close on 5th April unless filled earlier.

Plenty of parking for cars, Bus departs city every 15 minutes from 10am,

duration of journey is 45 minutes.

Picnic on grass between octagonal stone fort and Bare Island.

Holding a Friends event? Don’t forget to letUpdate know… and please, please send ussome photos!

AROUND THE BRANCHES HUNTER

ORANGEThe Orange Friends have decided to

submit an entry to The Country Hour’s60th Anniversary Roadshow competi-tion. One town in each state and the NTwill be chosen to host an ABC Radioevent. Cumnock near Wellington, wasthe first place from which The CountryHour was broadcast, and the OrangeFriends will be stressing the historiclinks in their submission. Apart from achance to be a part of history, the win-ning entries will get a 60th birthdayBBQ, a community skills workshop, afree concert, and national ABC Radioexposure.

The Orange Friends will again havea stall at the city’s

annual Food Affair on April 1.

Bev Holland

CENTRAL COASTCoffee, tea and FABC. Members of

the Central Coast Branch have decidedto meet informally each alternate monthat the Central Coast Leagues Club,Gosford. No meeting procedure, just anopportunity for members and friends tomeet and exchange ideas. The meet-ings will be held at 2.30pm on the sec-ond Saturday of every odd month.

Our next meeting is 14 May, 2:30

Committee Meetings for 2005 willagain be open to all members of thebranch and will be held at the CentralCoast Leagues Club on selectedSaturdays from 2pm - 4pm.

This year’s dates are:Saturday 2 April, Saturday 4 June, Saturday 6 August, Saturday 15 Oct. .

John Hale

GREAT LAKESThe Branch is still hoping to arrange

a date with Geraldine Doogue sometimesoon. We’ll have to accommodateGeraldine’s new weekend workinghours – she’s presenting Saturdaybreakfast on Radio National.

Grahame Burns

PARRAMATTAWe had a post-election wake as our

final meeting of the year, but were ableto celebrate the fact that in Parramattathe national trend was reversed, andthe sitting Liberal member, RossCameron, was defeated.

Plans for 2005 will focus on informa-tion and awareness-raising activities forpeople in the Parramatta area involvingseveral guest speakers.

Watch for details in the next issue ofUpdate.

Mal Hewitt

1233 ABC Newcastle has confirmed a tour of the studiosSaturday April 9 at 10:30 am

Bring a picnic for lunch in the park adjacent to the studios on the corner of Wood and Parry Streets

at Newcastle West. Allan Thomas

�� at Flat Rock Gully

Thursday 5th May 2005 11:30am-1:30pmPoems read by Don Swonnell 12 to 1

Members can bring a poem to have readBring a picnic lunch and a rug, cushion

or camp chair to sit on.

The Henry Lawson Caveis located behind

Willoughby Leisure Centre (Small St., Willoughby)rear car park on bike track 50 metres flat walk

CIRCLE OF

FRIENDS Being a member of the

Friends of the ABCmeans you’re part of atruly national organisation.

Apart from the 15 branchesin NSW there are branches in the capital of every other state and territory and more groups in country areas.

Branches organise a wide range of events for their mem-bers – from film nights and guest speaker gigs to simple coffee and a friendly chat.

So if you’re interstate or in the regions, why not get in touch with the local Friendsand pop in for a chat? After all, you’re one of the family!

For information on the lat-est events go to the webwww.fabcnsw.org.au Or you can call or email the local FABC contact person.

They’re easy to find– all their names

are on the back page of

Update.

New South WalesGary CookPO Box 1391North Sydney 2059Ph: 9810 [email protected]

AlburyJim Saleeba621 Lindsay Ave.Albury 2640(02) 6021 [email protected]

ArmidalePriscilla Connor41 Judith StreetArmidale NSW 2350Ph: 6772 3454 or 6772 [email protected]

BathurstTracey Carpenter 76 Havannah St Bathurst 2795 Ph. 6331 8305 [email protected]

BegaAlec Bacon, 25 Surf Circle, Tura Beach 2548Ph: 6495 9029 [email protected]

Blue MountainsJohn DerumP.O. Box 469Springwood 2777Ph: 4758 [email protected]

Central CoastJohn Hale21 Stephenson Rd.Bateau Bay 2261Ph: 4333 [email protected]

Eastern SuburbsNizza Siano (Secretary)16 Holland RdBellevue Hill NSW 2023Phone / Fax 9327 [email protected]

EurobodallaKeith Simmons1/29 Mathew Pde.Batehaven 2536Ph. 4472 [email protected]

Great LakesAudrey Semon (Secretary)P.O. Box 871Forster 2428Ph: 6554 [email protected]

IllawarraJan Kent (Secretary)Friends of the ABC IllawarraPO Box 336,Unanderra 2526Phone/Fax: 4271 [email protected]

NewcastleHank Willemsc/ PO Box 265 Merewether 2291Ph 4961 4401

Northern RiversNeville Jennings PO Box 167 Alstonville 2477Ph/Fax: 6674 3830 (H)[email protected]

OrangeBev Holland26 Sunny South CrescentOrange NSW 2800Ph: 6362 [email protected]

ParramattaMal Hewitt31 Queen St, Granville 2142Ph: 9637 [email protected]

Port Macquarie/Mid North CoastDrusi MeggetPO Box 1752Port Macquarie NSW 2444Ph: 02 6583 [email protected]

VictoriaFriends of the ABC (Vic)PO Box 2103St Kilda West VIC 3182Ph: 03 9682 [email protected]

QueenslandDon SinnamonSuite 14B17/421 Brunswick StFortitude Valley QLD 4006Ph 0405 721 [email protected]

ACTJill GreenwellGPO Box 2625Canberra ACT 2601Ph: 6253 [email protected]

South AustraliaJoan LaingP.O. Box 1758 Hutt St, Adelaide SA 5000Ph/Fax 08 8271 [email protected]

Western AustraliaRoger RavenPO Box 179Darlington, WA 6070Phone: (08) 9370 [email protected]

TasmaniaAnne O’ByrneGPO Box 883 Hobart Tas. 7001 Ph (03) 6331 [email protected]

Northern Territory Please contact South Australia (see above)

N ATIONA L RE S O U RC ECENTRE

Darce Cassidy www.friendsoftheabc.org

State and regional branches of Friends of the ABC

Membership form Please fill out the form below and return it with your payment to: The Treasurer, Friends of the ABC (NSW) Inc.PO Box 1391, North Sydney NSW 2059.Name Email:

Address Suburb P/Code

Phone (Home) (Work) Mob

Federal Electorate My details will be passed on to my local FABC Branch..Age Group 30 or under 31-50 51+

Membership No.____________________

I would like to join I would like to renew I am interested in helping I would like to join the email network (and help pass on information to members)

I/We apply for membership of FABC (NSW) Inc. and accept its objectives and rules. Signature.___________________________________Individual $20

Family/Household $25

Student $15

Pensioner $15

Corporate (covers 3 members) $60

I would like to make a donation $_________

Cardholders signature Amount $

I am paying by cheque in favour of FABC (NSW) Inc.

money order bankcard mastercard visa

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