A Joint Select Committee report into digital media has made 11 recommendations. Photo: File.
An organisation focussed on sustainable news media has welcomed parliament’s first substantive report into the impact of social media on Australian society.
The Public Interest Journalism Initiative (PIJI) says it largely advocates the Joint Select Committee’s recently released second interim report Digital platforms and the traditional news media and its 11 recommendations.
But social media giant Meta has accused the federal parliamentary committee of ignoring the value of what its platforms Facebook and Instagram bring to news outlets.
Meta says the Federal Government has no idea about “the realities of how our platforms work” and the fight continues over the news media bargaining code.
The government is looking to overhaul the code, accusing Meta of trying to avoid its obligations to pay for news it distributes.
But Meta is remaining defiant.
“The committee’s recommendations ignore the realities of how our platforms work, the preferences of the people who use them, and the value we provide news publishers who choose to post their content on our platforms,” a distributed statement from the company states.
PIJI has been advocating for a two-speed solution to the accelerating decline in public interest journalism.
“On one hand, short-term financial support for the local news outlets that represent 88 per cent of producers of public interest journalism nationally, and which are contracting at an alarming rate. Simultaneously, investment in long-term, structural reform through mechanisms such as a digital platforms levy and a suite of taxation reforms.”
PIJI says it’s pleased the committee recommends that the government explores the viability of a levy on digital platforms.
The initiative also supports Communications Minister Michelle Rowland’s recent announcement of $15 million in urgent funding for regional and local news outlets through the News Media Relief Program.
But it says “much work remains to be done”, including:
“An increase in the sustainable supply of public interest journalism through tax incentives that encourage long-term investment; the deliberate development of a not-for-profit news market in Australia, particularly at a local news level; (and) demonstrable commitments from the news industry to its unique professional standards.
“This will not only help the public clearly differentiate news journalism from low-quality and false content, but will reinforce the public’s trust in news and build the social cohesion that keeps our society resilient against the spread of online misinformation and disinformation.”
The Joint Select Committee’s interim report recommends the Australian Government:
- Establishes a Digital Affairs Ministry with overarching responsibility for the coordination of regulation to address the challenges and risks presented by digital platforms
- Acknowledging the limitations of the News Media Bargaining Code, explores alternative revenue mechanisms to supplement the code and contribute to systems oversight, such as a digital platform levy
- Develops an appropriate mechanism and protocols to guide the fair and transparent distribution of revenue arising from any new revenue mechanisms
- Revisits the tests for registration of news businesses under the News Media Bargaining Code to ensure their design does not present an unreasonable barrier to registration for small, independent or digital-only publishers
- Establishes a short-term transition fund to help news media businesses to diversify and strengthen alternative income streams and news product offerings
- Investigates the viability and effectiveness of ‘must carry’ requirements for digital platforms in relation to Australian news content from large and small news providers, including an assessment of the legal pathways and barriers to such requirements
- Establishes a Digital Media Competency Fund
- Supports the need for legislation to combat mis- and disinformation.
- Adopts transparency requirements similar to the measures in the European Union’s Digital Services Act, which includes transparency around recommender systems, as well as mandatory access to platform data and algorithms to facilitate research
- Examines options to respond to the use of algorithms and recommender systems to deprecate news by digital platforms with significant power
- Reviews the effectiveness of the industry co-regulation model for digital platforms in Australia.
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