The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) with the assistance of the Community Broadcasting Association of Australia (CBAA) have registered a new community radio broadcasting code of practice with an updated set of rules about what can and can’t be played on air.
This is the first broadcasting industry code to be registered since the ACMA asked all industry bodies to review their codes in 2022 and will be effective on July 1st, 2025.
ACMA Chair Nerida O’Loughlin said this will strengthen community safeguards:
“The new community radio code is the result of substantial work undertaken by CBAA over several years. The ACMA acknowledges the highly collaborative way the review was undertaken and the broader community broadcasting sector’s commitment to the development of the code.
We are particularly pleased to see stronger protections around news content on community radio, including requirements for impartiality and for reporters to take special care where facts may be contested and not settled.”
Under the new code community radio broadcasters should align their programming decisions with contemporary community standards, prioritise First Nations voices when reporting on or discussing First Nations issues, and strengthen complaints-handling processes with the inclusion of safeguards to those accessing their content in new ways.
The new codes have articulated guiding principles for community broadcasting:
After comparing the old and new codes, our assessment of the changes are:
- A more simplified approach to governance and community representation
- An underlying assumption that community broadcasters will pursue democratic principles
- Clearer definitions of what is not suitable for broadcast compared with the old regulations that gave an overview of ‘general programming’
- Much clearer guidelines for journalistic content, including new inclusions about misinformation and disinformation, while still maintaining the principle that community broadcasting should reflect voices and viewpoints that are not often heard on other sectors
- Specific emergency broadcasting guidance
- Clearer, more up to date guidance on complaints handling, including the removal of receiving complaints by fax
- Better explanations of different types of complaints and how they should be handled
- The Codes now include clearer references to the legislation in boxes at the bottom of each code
radioinfo’s Steve Ahern, who has taught Codes of Practice to all broadcasting sectors for many years has given the new codes the thumbs up.
“The old codes were right for their time, but in the new complex Australian media environment the community sector needed an increase in clear limits, but a decrease in internal administrative red tape. These new codes seem to deliver that.
“It is also good to see mention of misinformation and disinformation, it points out to community broadcasters the need for them to play a role in combating scams, hoaxes and division which are increasingly being pushed by other unregulated non-broadcast platforms which do not necessarily have the interests of Australian communities at heart.”
The new community radio code can be found at https://www.acma.gov.au/industry-codes-practice
More information about the code review process: https://www.cbaa.org.au/community-broadcasting/codes-of-practice-current/codes-of-practice-review
Reporting and analysis: Jen Seyderhelm and Steve Ahern