Disney calls for more proactive Press Council and urges formation of new cross-media watchdog
Professor Julian Disney, the outgoing chair of the Australian Press Council (APC), has called for the regulator to investigate potential standards breaches even when there is no complainant, and suggested it should “morph” into a new body with the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) to take oversight of “a fuller range of media”.
In an address to the National Press Club today Disney called for the APC to move to consider breaches of the Standards of Practice without a complainant, a move which will likely be controversial given concerns raised by The Australian newspaper last year that it had “strayed” into areas which are not part of its oversight.
“The Council decided a few years before I became chair that it would investigate some possible breaches of its Standards even if it had not yet received a formal complaint,” said Disney. “The Council now needs to implement that decision more effectively.”
In a wide ranging speech Disney tackled the use of social media photos by media outlets, raised concerns about the impact of falling revenues on publishing practices and press freedom, and called for ongoing discussion around merging the print and online regulator with the ACMA to form a new body.Disney also made several veiled comments which appeared to be aimed as News Corp Australia, a company he has enjoyed a fractured relationship with in recent years.
The Finkelstein Review and recommendations were brilliant, but once again, the interests of corporatism trump the protections and rights of the consumer.
‘The APC chair also warned: “Indisputable errors or misrepresentations are too common… Many of the worst misrepresentations occur on prominent pages, often in headlines or opening paragraphs. Sometimes they may reflect editors’ commercial or political concerns rather than the perspectives of the relevant journalist and article.”’
^ Read: Daily Tele editor Paul Whittaker. That’s what he does. And his paper has been subject to a number of complaints because of it.
Disney was a terrific Chair doing good work in a very difficult environment. We know he was effective because he managed to upset the News Corp editors. They obsessed about him regularly. Under Disney the Press Council actually gained a few teeth.