Lobby group Get Up has started a petition to “save” the ABC.
 
There are concerns from a number of groups, including the Friends of the ABC, that Tony Abbott may not keep his pre-election promise of “no cuts to the ABC or SBS” if the coalition won government.
 
The concern is not just that the government may reduce funding, but that the public broadcaster could be commercialised or even sold off.
 
The government and particularly Communications Minister, Malcolm Turnbull says this is not the case, but there are some from the conservative side of politics demanding that the ABC be “reigned in”.
 
This has been particularly true ln relation to the ABC/Guardian leaked phone tapping story that led to the recent international incident with Indonesia.
 
Certainly the pressure already seems to be on with claims of alleged bias leading to an external editorial review of ABC Radio and TV. It will be interesting to see what the findings of that review end up being.
 
Which ever way you look at it, there are significantly differing views as to what the role of a publicly funded broadcaster should be.

You can see the petition here.