DAY 1, SESSION 2 BROADCASTING REGULATION AND POLICY IN AUSTRALIA – OVERVIEW
This session covers:
Regulatory systems and policy
Key sources of regulation
The ‘regulators’ and other decision-makers
1. REGULATORY SYSTEMS AND POLICY
Constitutional context
In Australia the Federal Parliament can only make laws with respect to matters for which it has power under the Constitution. The States are responsible for other matters.
Broadcasting is covered by the following head of power in the Constitution:
51.The Parliament shall, subject to this Constitution, have power to make laws for the peace, order, and good government of the Commonwealth with respect to: -
[…]
(v.) Postal, telegraphic, telephonic, and other like services:
A number of High Court cases over many years have established the meaning of ‘postal, telegraphic, telephonic and other like services’. The case law has established that this power is wide in scope – for example, it has been held to support laws relating to radio and television broadcasting, ownership and control rules, and online services.
Note that in Australia there is no constitutional protection for free speech. The media does not have any guaranteed protection again legal action and there are strong defamation laws. However, the High Court of Australia has held that the Constitution includes a limited ‘implied freedom’ of political communication. (These aspects of ‘media law’ will be referred to in Session 9).
Broadcasting law and regulation
The centrepiece of media regulation is the Broadcasting Services Act 1992 (the BSA).
The BSA was enacted and further developed during a period of technological development and regulatory reform in media and communications from the late 1980s to the late 1990s.
This period included:
launch of satellite technology and mobile phones in the late 1980s;
changes to media policy in the same period, allowing national television networks to develop (replacing legal limits on the number of stations that could be owned across Australia with cross-media rules focused on local markets);
introduction of competition in telecommunications services (first at the infrastructure level in 1991, then at the retail level in 1997);
introduction of different categories of spectrum licensing in 1992;
changes to the law allowing introduction of pay TV in 1995.
These changes were as important as later changes such as:
→ introduction of laws relating to online services in 1998
→ the ‘digital transition’ that lasted from the late 1990s to 2013