Dana Wortley (SA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I welcome the opportunity to speak on a matter of public interest. A report was recently tabled by the Senate Standing Committee on the Environment, Communications and the Arts called The reporting of sports news and the emergence of digital media. The ECA committee conducted four public hearings as part of this inquiry, with particular reference, among other things, to:

(a) The balance of commercial and public interests in the reporting and broadcasting of sports news;

(b) The nature of sports news reporting in the digital age, and the effect of new technologies (including video streaming on the Internet, archived photo galleries and mobile devices) on the nature of sports news reporting;

(c) Whether and why sporting organisations want digital reporting of sports regulated, and what should be protected by such regulation;

(d) The appropriate balance between sporting and media organisations’ respective commercial interests in the issue;

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(f) The appropriate balance between the public’s right to access alternative sources of information using new types of digital media, and the rights of sporting organisations to control or limit access to ensure a fair commercial return or for other reasons;

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(h) The current accreditation processes for journalists and media representatives at sporting events, and the use of accreditation for controlling reporting on events; and

(i) Options other than regulation or commercial negotiation (such as industry guidelines for sports and news agencies in sports reporting, dispute resolution mechanisms and codes of practice) to manage sports news to balance commercial interests and public interests.

The inquiry provided the opportunity for issues of concern to both media organisations and sporting bodies to be raised. The ECA committee received 43 submissions and heard evidence from media organisations and agencies and sporting bodies and representative organisations. The convergence of media technologies and the emergence of new media platforms have created new opportunities for news media organisations, sports broadcasters and sporting organisations, bringing with them challenges as existing businesses and organisations attempt to adapt to the new media environment.

It is fair to say from evidence presented to the committee that these changes to the media landscape have led to some conflict as stakeholders endeavour to avail themselves of the new opportunities as they emerge. It is important to point out, however, that there were areas of common ground, including agreement that the delivery of news had been radically affected by the emergence of digital media and that public or audience expectations of news media had changed. Both sporting and media organisations believe that there is a need for news coverage of sport and wish for sports news reporting to continue. I am sure that sports reporters and presenters, sporting organisations, media organisations and the general public are pleased with that agreement. Both sporting and media organisations also acknowledge the commercial benefits of reporting sports news.

The committee believed that freedom of the press is as important in the new media environment as it ever was, and this includes ensuring the media have access to events and places, as well as having the freedom to report news about those events and from those places. While all participants in the inquiry indicated their support for a free media, it was apparent that giving practical effect to that principle, in particular in relation to access to events, is presenting some challenges in the new media environment. Having a free media is crucial to any healthy democracy. While the commercial interests of sporting bodies are of significance, issues raised in submissions and, in particular, in evidence presented to the committee showed a marked increase in restrictions on the freedom of the media with regard to access to sporting events. In some cases, this included the imposition of restrictions on how news is reported.

As suggested by the title of the inquiry, a significant consideration for those involved in hearings was the way the delivery of news, including sport, has been evolving as digital and online formats have taken hold across the media landscape. These new platforms have created new opportunities for engaging the public across the scope of stakeholders from sporting bodies to news media outlets and sports broadcasters. But these new opportunities have also spawned new conflicts between the interest groups as each side of the debate sees the other as encroaching on its traditional turf.

With a free press comes responsibility, and there are few who would argue against a journalists code of ethics. The Media Alliance journalists code of ethics overriding principle states:

Respect for truth and the public’s right to information are fundamental principles of journalism.

Journalists—

… search, disclose, record, question, entertain, comment and remember. They inform citizens and animate democracy … they scrutinise power, but also exercise it, and should be accountable.

The industrial and professional body representing journalists, the Media Alliance, acknowledges that technological advances mean that demand is overwhelming for continuous news of important sporting events on multiple platforms and that existing legislation allows fair use of data, footage and pictures from sporting events to be used for news purposes.’

The Media Alliance says that it would be opposed to any regulation that would lead to a statutory body deciding what is considered to be legitimate news coverage of a sporting event. It believes that news organisations need to strike a balance with sporting bodies as to what is and is not considered fair use of material from sporting events. It is of the view also that the news industry, through the alliance code of ethics and the Press Council’s complaints procedure, has shown it is able to self-regulate. It says that this should continue and news organisations and sporting bodies should continue to negotiate in good faith over what is and what is not considered to be legitimate news coverage.

Even before sports news and entertainment gets to the point of being disseminated there is really prickly ground, particularly in the realm of media accreditation agreements. Evidence presented to the inquiry highlighted some stringent media accreditation processes demanded by some sporting bodies, which appear to be smothering media outlets’ abilities to disseminate the news. As the inquiry report states:

Some news media organisations claimed that sporting organisations were attempting to use accreditation agreements as a means “to alter or even displace the fair dealing provisions contained in the Copyright Act, the public policy underlying it and the right of news organisations to exercise their rights as copyright owners in the material they create”

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The committee does accept that in some cases media organisations may be testing the boundaries of what constitutes news, and some sporting organisations are “testing the boundaries” of what can reasonably be asked of news reporting organisations in their accreditation agreements.

So the committee has recommended that media and sporting bodies—the stakeholders generally—negotiate a set of principles for news media access to sporting events for bona fide journalists, including photojournalists and news agencies, to be able to access sporting events regardless of the technological platform.

This is just one of the recommendations of the committee. The committee also urges the government to take into account challenges presented by digital media to sports organisations’ current and future revenue prospects and options. It recommends that the current Crawford review of sports pay particular attention to the capacity of sport to invest in digital innovation. I encourage those interested in sport and the media to log on to the ECA website to access the report and read the submissions presented as part of the inquiry, because it really makes for interesting reading and highlights the arguments of the main stakeholders.