The controversial ACMA finding on the Four Corners two-part program, ‘Fox and the Big Lie’, has again highlighted the shortcomings of the media standards regulation processes in Australia. But what to do about it? Alumni director Alan Sunderland has spent several years considering this issue. Here’s his view.To build trust in the news, we need a trustworthy watchdog The latest furore surrounding media standards in Australia happened just before Christmas, as most of the country was sensibly foc...

ABC Alumni and ABC Friends launch our first 2023 joint campaign leading up to the May budget and the coming ABC 5-year funding agreement. If you’ve been thinking recent funding increases are enough, they’re not. As you’ll see in our campaign report, the ABC is still at risk of going backwards.NO, MINISTER – THE ABC’S FUNDING PROBLEM AIN’T FIXED ... YET Rebuilding the ABC its October mini-budget, the Albanese government found an extra $29 million per year for the ABC: $21 million per year over f...

By Peter Lewis, 9 February 2023 Rural and regional broadcasting has been a mainstay of ABC programming for nearly eight decades. It’s provided a unique on-the-ground insight into the lives and businesses of Australians outside of the capital cities, and both Landlineand The Country Hour remain favourite programs in the rural regions and among many in the cities too. Pete Lewis came to rural reporting late, after many years in news and current affairs but, as he writes here, it was his time on L...