The ABC is under attack and we need to protect it.
Join our campaign to save the ABC and media diversity.
The ABC is under attack and we need to protect it.
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation is as Australian as, well, the ABC. Millions of people rely on it for their news, on TV, on the radio and increasingly, online.
It’s a critical part of our media landscape – but a small number of media barons want to work with Tony Abbott to stop the ABC providing news online.
The ABC is under attack and we need to protect it.
Communications Minister Stephen Conroy is putting the final touches on a media reform package, expected within days.
Already in Australia, only a tiny handful of media oligarchs own and control most of what we can watch, read and hear – one company alone controls 70% of our newspapers.
They know that a big part of the future of news is online, and they are challenging the right of our public broadcaster to be part of that. Worse, Tony Abbott is encouraging them.
The Coalition is opposed to any attempts to protect media diversity and federal Labor has been sitting on 39 recommendations on media reform for more than a year.
Unless we act now to legislate protection for the ABC to give it the right to be online, if Tony Abbott wins the next election he will be able to gut key ABC services, including online news content.
Only the Greens have taken a strong and consistent stand against concentration of media ownership. In this term of government, we’ve secured the biggest funding increase for SBS in its history, campaigned for regional production centres for the ABC, and secured funding for independent Australian music to get airplay through AMRAP.
Real media reform needs to be the next step in securing a strong, independent media – free from corporate vested interests. Help us take that stand by showing your support for media diversity, your public and community broadcasters.
With thanks,
Scott