News Ltd chief ready for regulation fight

13 Jul 2012, 5:04 pm   -   Source: AAP
News Ltd chief executive Kim Williams says he will fight media regulation changes in the High Court. (AAP)

News Ltd chief executive Kim Williams says he will fight media regulation changes in the High Court. (AAP)

Kim Williams, the head of Rupert Murdoch's Australian newspaper arm, says he is willing to fight media regulation changes in the High Court.

News Ltd chief executive Kim Williams says he is prepared to go all the way to the High Court to protect the media industry from being over-regulated.

Mr Williams indicated he was ready for a legal battle on Friday as he stepped up his attacks on calls for a super regulator for newspapers, radio, TV and the internet.

He told the South Australian Press Club he was prepared to fight the federal government in court if it decided to introduce a regulator with such far-reaching powers.

"We will take the matter as far as we can. We will take it to the High Court," Mr Williams said when asked how far News Ltd would go to stop the super regulator being created.

The Finkelstein inquiry has recommended a new statutory agency for the Australian media as it believed the industry's attempts at self-regulation were inadequate.

It wants a News Media Council to set journalistic standards for the news media and handle complaints from the public.

Another independent inquiry, the Convergence Review, has called for a new communications regulator as well as a controversial public interest test for prospective media company owners to help protect diversity.

Mr Williams said while the media was not perfect, a proper complaints body should be free of government pressure and based on self regulation.

He said the "preposterous and foolish" Finkelstein recommendations should be treated with caution as any reach for more regulation was "positively Pavlovian".

He said the Finkelstein recommendation for press standards to be set by a self-regulatory body and then overseen by a super regulator was "prima facie bad" as journalists could be fined or jailed with no right of appeal.

Such a body also risked getting bogged down with complaints about internet bloggers while more serious issues involving major media outlets waited in the regulator's in-tray.

On the proposed public interest test for media owners, Mr Williams said most major media companies opposed it because it would give the government control over who owns a media company.

He said such a test was equivalent to a government interest test, instead of being a public interest test.

As a result, governments would be able to stop people buying media companies if they disagreed with their views, a move which would limit the diversity of press outlets in Australia.

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