ABC Board vacancies to stay vacant for the time being!

The Australian government would not fill two soon-to-be vacant positions on the ABC Board, until it could establish a fair, merit based appointment process, according to the Communications Minister, Stephen Conroy.

ABC Board Deputy chair John Gallagher QC completes his term on February 23 while Dr Ron Brunton concludes on April 30, 2008. The FABC is highly critical of the composition of the current ABC Board which it believes was stacked by the previous government.

Senator Conroy was speaking in Canberra to a Friends of the ABC (FABC) delegation; Professor Alan Knight, Jill Greenwell and Malcolm Hewitt.

The Minister said the government was investigating legislating to ensure transparency and accountability of ABC Boards. He added the government was absolutely committed to Labor policy to allow for an ABC staff elected Board member.

Professor Knight said that when the Minister was asked about how the ABC would fare in this year's budget, Senator Conroy replied that any new funding initiatives in the 2008 budget were expected to be explicitly restricted to projects promised during the election.

Professor Knight noted that this would appear to exclude the ABC television children's channel, which had been discussed but not promised by Labor during the campaign.

Senator Conroy said he supported adequate government funding for the ABC and noted that that degrees of commercialisation should be governed by a properly appointed, independent, ABC Board.

ABC CLEANS UP IN COUCH POTATO AWARDS

Each year the critics who write for the SMH Guide nominate the best TV productions in a number of categories. In the 2007 Awards, ABC shows won 12 of the 17 awards:

• Best Overseas Drama: Life on Mars
• Best Local Telemovie or Miniseries: Curtin
• Best Imported Telemovie or Miniseries: Shakespeare Re-told
• Best Local Comedy: The Chaser War on Everything and Summer Heights High
• Best Local Documentary: Ten Pound Poms
• Best Imported Documentary: Tony Robinson: Me And My Mum
• Best Observational Reality Show: Choir of Hard Knocks
• Best Infotainment or Lifestyle Show: The New Inventors
• Best News and Current Affairs Show: The 7.30 Report
• Best Variety or Talk Show: Enough Rope
• Best Arts Show: Not Quite Art
• Watercooler Show of the Year: The Chaser’s War on Everything

Another great performance from the ABC.

Congratulations to ABC Walkley Award Winners

NSW Friends of the ABC congratulates the following ABC staff journalists and presenters who have won 2007 Walkley Awards.

Once again, the ABC has led the way in outstanding broadcasting.

• Best Radio Feature: Euridice Arone and Sharon Davis (Radio National)
• Best TV Documentary: Matthew Brown and Wayne Healey – “West Bank Love and Betrayal”
• Best Sports Feature: Wendy Page, Australian Story – “Man of the Century”
• Best Interviewer: Tony Jones, Lateline
• Best Cameraman: Andrew Taylor, Four Corners
• Best Use of Media: ABC Newcastle for its coverage of the floods.

The Friends of the ABC NSW Award for Excellence in Broadcasting for 2007 goes to Robyn Williams and the Radio National Science Show

Producer and presenter of The Science Show since its launch in August 1975, Robyn has given 32 years of outstanding and distinguished service to both the ABC and the listening public of Australia. Working within very limited financial resources, Robyn has, over those 32 years, provided us with a program of a consistently high standard, often controversial, always entertaining, and of interest to both the scientist and layperson.

Robyn was born in the UK in 1944 (during an air raid), received his education in London and Vienna, attending the University of London, where he obtained a BSc(Hons) in biology, and gained two fellowships at Oxford. He is currently a visiting professor at University of NSW.

His career with the ABC began in 1972, when he covered the last two Apollo Missions. His first radio series was Innovations (1972), and included Investigations, Ockham’s Razor and In Conversation. Robyn describes The Science Show as follows:

‘The program is essentially unpredictable. This is to allow maximum flexibility to accommodate new material and talent. It can range from the regular magazine program to lectures, scripted series, of which several by the late Professor Peter Mason were legendary, to hoaxes and satire. John Clarke began his Australian career on The Science Show, with reports on the connection between scoffing red foods and communism, and the deep conundrum of whether sheep have ethics (not in New Zealand, apparently). The Science Show has featured Paul Hogan, Sting, Bill Gates, Shere Hite, Douglas Adams, John Cleese, Graham Chapman, Margaret Thatcher, Jane Goodall, but not Madonna, Delta Goodrem or Doris Postlethwaite.’

The award will be presented at the Friends Christmas Party on 7 Dec 2007 - see above.

Your ABC: proudly brought to you by your sponsors?

“This service, the ABC, now belongs to you. We are your trustees. It is a service that is not run for profit, but purely in the interests of every section of the community.”

“Those words introduced the ABC to the nation on "the wireless" in 1932. In this the ABC's 75th birthday year, that quality of service, to every section of the community, continues to differentiate the ABC from the commercial broadcasters.”

“The prohibition on advertising protects that distinctive quality of the ABC.”

For the complete article written by Jill Greenwell, President Friends of the ABC ACT click here.

Please do not Commercialise the ABC

On 2nd May our President Mal Hewitt wrote to Mark Scott, Managing Director of the ABC, expressing our shared concern:

Dear Mr Scott,

Recent announcements and media coverage of your activities give us hope that the ABC we cherish may, under your leadership, be in caring and capable hands.

However the underlying problem, which we are sure you recognise, is the continued lack of sufficient funding to allow the ABC to come anywhere near attaining its potential to meet the spirit of its charter obligations to inform, educate and promote the culture of our nation.

We continue to admire the offering which you and the ABC team manage to produce on a limited budget from inadequate resources. We recognise that much of the so called additional triennial funding was tied to new initiatives, leaving a budget shortfall in areas such as regular programming, drama and documentaries.

However, we are worried about how you might plan to address this shortfall.
The Friends of the ABC in NSW share a deep concern about the long term effects of the funding remedies which you have discussed, namely a resort to advertising on the main ABC website, and charging for downloads from that site.

We know, and we feel you must be aware, that commercial initiatives of that sort are in clear breach of the spirit of the ABC Charter, which was framed at a time when the internet web had not been imagined.

We fear that the introduction of commercially expedient measures to marginally improve the ABC's budget position are likely to prove the thin edge of a very destructive wedge. Given a softening of policy on commercialisation, it is only a matter of time before a government in power with a Senate majority acts to alter the ABC Charter, which would effectively destroy the independence of the ABC and open it to the influence of the commercial interests who would provide its funding.

We therefore urge you, please, to steer clear of a commercial path.

Yours sincerely,

Malcolm Hewitt
President FABC NSW

Advertisements on the ABC Website?

Once again the prospect of commercialising the ABC is on the agenda. It seems that the ABC¹s Managing Director, Mark Scott, may try to exploit a legal loophole that will enable the ABC to run advertisements on its web sites. In a separate option consideration may be given to introducing a Trojan Horse that will undermine the ABC's traditional editorial values.

For further information click here

Last updated 2 April, 2008