News boss says reforms limit free speech

6 Sep 2012, 6:20 pm   -   Source: AAP
News Ltd chief executive Kim Williams says he is deeply concerned about proposed new media reforms. (AAP)

News Ltd chief executive Kim Williams says he is deeply concerned about proposed new media reforms. (AAP)

Proposed media reforms threaten free speech and give the government power to control the media, says News Limited boss Kim Williams.

News Limited chief Kim Williams has hit out at proposed media reforms, claiming they threaten free speech and devalue media companies.

Mr Williams says he fears that media reforms proposed by the federal government's Finkelstein and Convergence reviews threaten press freedom and the economic value of media companies.

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.

But, Mr Williams argues, Australia's media diversity in the past decade has increased because free-to-air networks and the ABC had launched digital channels, Foxtel had 13 independent news channels and there was a large array of internet news sites.

He said delays, while the government considered the public interest of any new acquisition, devalued media assets and the test could be abused by politicians seeking to control the media.

"Such tests are subject to political control and the very real possibility of politicians stopping people acquiring media assets just because they don't agree with them or even just don't like them," he told the Pacific Area Newspaper Publishers' Association (PANPA) forum in Sydney on Thursday.

Mr Williams also accused the federal government of setting up the Finkelstein Review into media practices because it did not like reporting from his company's newspapers.

"I find it, as I hope all of you do, deeply concerning we have reached a place where words like government, journalist and jailing can all appear in the same sentence when describing a report by a retired judge," he said.

He added that he was concerned political motivations were behind the review headed by Ray Finkelstein, QC, which was established in the wake of the News International phone hacking scandal in the UK.

"For our overseas visitors, it may strike you as odd that there are two reports into the media at the same time," he said.

"The reason for this is that the Finkelstein Review was set up after the Convergence Review kicked off.

"Why?

"Because some political parties did not like some reporting - frankly mainly from some News Limited journalists and papers."

AAP chief executive Bruce Davidson agreed vigilance was needed when it came to press freedom.

"At AAP, we are unwavering in upholding the tradition and principles of an unfettered and independent media," he said.

"The spectre of government in the shadows of any regulatory body has the potential to lead to forms of control. Once that happens, the shadow looms large and dark, and all of a sudden you have a media unable to be truly free."

  • Follow us: 
  • Follow us on Facebook
  • Follow us on Twitter
  • Follow us on Youtube