The Australian Communications and Media Authority has hit back at claims, published prominently in The Australian, that its new privacy guidelines will limit coverage of Immigration issues. The ACMA has issued a statement to correct “inaccurate media reporting” about its recently published Privacy Guidelines for Broadcasters 2011. “Some media outlets have claimed that the guidelines are imposing new privacy restrictions on the electronic media. This is simply not the case,” says ACMA Chairman Chris Chapman.
“The regulation of broadcasting content in Australia is largely set out in codes of practice developed by the television and radio industries themselves. Privacy protections have long been embedded in these codes of practice. The ACMA’s revised guidelines do not, and indeed cannot, of themselves create new obligations, and are only intended to assist licensees to comply with their own codes.
“The industry codes require broadcasters to take account of both the rights of individuals to privacy and the (ultimately overriding) public interest. Nothing has changed in this regard from the ACMA’s existing 2005 Privacy Guidelines.”
Chapman says there is no new “media restriction;” there are no new “media rules.”
A particular erroneous claim being made is that the guidelines restrict the coverage by the media of the arrival of asylum seekers to Australia. In fact, the guidelines make no specific mention of asylum seekers, as claimed, according to Chapman. Nor do they create a new protection of “seclusion.”
The notion of seclusion has been around for a long time says Chapman. It has been well explored in the courts and was specifically referred to and accepted in an ACMA investigation report into a 2008 Ten News at Five broadcast. The concept was then explicitly included in the ACMA’s draft guidelines released for public consultation in August 2011.
The Australian’s report drew heavily on a submission by the Department of Immigration and Citizenship on the draft guidelines. Chapman says the ACMA “carefully considered all 15 submissions received and drafting refinements were made as a consequence,” but that the submission did not drive ACMA’s position. “On the issue of seclusion it simply re-affirmed its original approach in the final guidelines. Claims that the ACMA has lacked appropriate independence from government are without basis.”
The issue has got some Twitter action going amongst The Australian’s staff, Immigration and commentators.
Check out the Tweets @SandiHLogan, @nicchristensen and @leysie amongst others
See The Australian’s report here.
See radioinfo’s reporting of the new guidelines here. We found no issue with the policies regarding immigration, although we did quote concerns from broadcasters about other issues.