Fed: Fairfax welcomes cross media laws report

AAP General News (Australia)
04-12-2000
Fed: Fairfax welcomes cross media laws report

` CANBERRA, April 12 AAP - One of Australia's key media players has thrown its support
behind a report recommending Australia's cross-media laws should be scrapped.

The Fairfax newspaper company welcomed the government-commissioned report, which also
said any merger between radio, television and newspaper groups must be weighed up in the
public interest.

Fairfax CEO Fred Hilmer said the report was generally in line with Fairfax policy on
cross-media laws.

"We welcome the Commission's report," he said.

"We are broadly supportive of its overall direction, which is in the best interests
of sound media policy and, at the same time, generally consistent with Fairfax's views
on deregulation.

"We do differ on some of the Commission's recommendations, and will make representations
at the appropriate time to the Government."

News Ltd, whose owner Rupert Murdoch would be a key beneficiary of revised media ownership
laws, said it was still considering the report.

The Productivity Commission report said cross-media laws were increasingly irrelevant
with new media companies based on the Internet and telecommunications networks springing
up every day, and imposed extra costs and restrictions on media proprietors.

"The digital revolution in broadcasting creates the potential for a more competitive
market and more diversity in the sources of information and opinion," the commission said.

The commission recommended the government lift restrictions on foreign investment and
end the ban on new commercial television stations before allowing open slather on ownership.

A spokesman for Communications Minister Richard Alston said the report provided further
evidence that cross-media laws were outdated and archaic.

He said the government was considering the recommendations but could not reform media
ownership laws while Labor and the Democrats opposed change.

Opposition communications spokesman Stephen Smith said the report backed up Labor's
argument that the proposed datacasting regime was too restrictive and would stifle a new
industry before it began.

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