Govt may direct ABC & SBS on how they spend funding
Media reports suggest the govt may start telling broadcasters how to spend their money.
- Published by David Knox
- on
- Filed under News
The government could be looking at how the ABC and SBS are spending their budgets, which would be a shift from the broadcasters having autonomy on how they handle allocated funding.
Fairfax reports the government is considering issuing directions to the ABC and SBS on managing their budgets but the idea is ”controversial” and could spark concerns the government is intervening for political reasons.
The ABC and SBS would have to respond with annual statements detailing how they are managing their resources.
ABC Friends spokeswoman Glenys Stradijot said the proposal would undermine the broadcaster’s independence.
‘If the ABC’s independence is to be upheld, its affairs must be continue to be managed by an independent board, and its accountability must remain to the Parliament as a whole, not to the government of the day,” she told the newspaper.
A study has identified approximately $60 million in savings at the ABC, but Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull has insisted any future cuts should affect only back-office operations, not programming.
10 Responses
Wonder if there will be any backlash in the ratings for the abc. Like most have said already i expected this to happen. The people themselves should tell the abc how to spend the money the the federal govt. they are just in charge of distributing the tax revenue thats all. The following months will be interesting.
Was wondering how long it would take for this to happen.
I really fear for the future of the ABC and SBS with the current government seemingly determined to “conquer” and destroy them.
So petty.
Oh so that’s all it takes does it, Pertinax! Blind Freddie could tell you that any reduced funding of ABC and SBS operations will inevitably impact on programming. Why doesn’t the government require the commercial networks to forgo the hundreds of millions of dollars in taxpayers money they have received in licence fee reductions since 2010? It’s not just the public broadcasters that are taxpayer funded.
And all it would require the ABC and SBS is to produce a statement saying how they are managing the taxpayer funding they are given and what efficiencies they are implementing to make better use of it.
As the report said it would be only about administrative and financial matters and would specifically have nothing to do with programming or anything that would threaten editorial independence.
If the ABC and SBS start implementing some of the recommendations it won’t even happen, it for if they refuse.
I can just imagine the directives:
No stories about asylum seekers,
No stories about climate change,
No political satire,
No songs by Midnight Oil on Rage,
No 7:30 Report,
No Media Watch,
No Four Corners,
No stories criticising Murdoch,
No stories about gay marriage,
No stories about euthanasia.
ABC gonna be CCABC and SBS gonna be CCSBS like CCTV in China
The gov’t will have full control of the TV broadcasters eventually
There’s a fine line between being a public broadcaster and being the State broadcaster. For everyone who laughed at the phrase ‘Government news agency’ in the former USSR and China, get ready to be the subject of international mirth.
The torch bearers for the ultra right in the coalition government will not rest until public broadcasting in this country is emasculated to the point where it can no longer do its job properly. You only have to see the ABC’s coverage of the MH17 tragedy to realise what an important role public broadcasting plays in Australia.
Not on….there will be a lot of reaction to this one!
Turnbull should be PM. Much better than the muppet we have now.
That being said, government intervention in the programming of the ABC would be a very bad move.
North Korea anyone?