Blackout. On 18 February 2021, for just under a week, Facebook pulled the plug on news sharing in Australia. Facebook users could no longer access or share news, stripping them of the world’s biggest source of digital media.
This was Facebook calling the Australian government’s bluff over a proposed law that would force technology companies to compensate news publishers for content. Perhaps it worked to a certain degree.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s government amended the bargaining code to allow two months for news publishers and tech companies to broker agreements.
Facebook appeared content with the changes to the code, believing it now more accurately represented the symbiotic relationship between digital platforms and publishers.
“We are satisfied that the Australian government has agreed to a number of changes and guarantees that address our core concerns about allowing commercial deals that recognise the value our platform provides to publishers relative to the value we receive from them,” Facebook Australia and New Zealand Managing Director Will Easton said.
Australian Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said, “Facebook has re-friended Australia”.
News feeds were restored to Facebook. All was good in the media world. A crisis averted thanks to the brinkmanship diplomacy of Facebook and the Australian Government. Another win for democracy guys, cupcakes for everyone!
But wait – don’t get the party poppers out just yet.
While the bargaining code aims to protect news media by “levelling the playing field” as Josh Frydenberg said, concerns remain as to whether local and public interest journalism will truly benefit from the scheme.
More money towards news publishers does not equate to more money for local journalists and the community news sector.
How will smaller and independent players – who already lack competitive circulation firepower – be positively affected by the code?
In short – not a great deal.
Digital Rights Watch Chair Lizzie O’Shea remains opposed to the legislation as there was “no guarantee” the code will effectively address the contraction and concentration of media in Australia.
For context, in the post-COVID landscape nearly 200 newsrooms have shut since 2019. That is great loss of media diversity.
“The legislation creates incentives for platforms to negotiate with news organisations to pay for content appearing on their site. But news outlets are not obliged to direct this money toward quality journalism – they are free to spend it however they chose,” O’Shea said.
“Instead the code creates a system where money is transferred from one private entity to another.”
The law does not oblige news publishers to direct profits from the code towards quality public interest-based journalism. If anything, it will serve to strengthen the status quo.
Tasmanian Senator Jacqui Lambie agrees.
“Far from helping Australian journalism, this law gives millions to those lucky enough to already be operating, and nothing to anybody who’s trying to start a new media organisation to compete against them,” Senator Lambie said.
“You don’t promote competition by giving the current players free money and pulling up the drawbridge to all new players.’’
The bargaining code is harmful to media competition as Facebook only needs to bargain with publishers with a revenue of $150,000 or over.
The statistics prove that regional news organisations are an endangered species in the media environment.
Regional newspapers on the decline.(BrianAJackson/iStock/Getty Images Plus)
The focus must shift from protecting big players to supporting smaller news publishers. Local journalism is crucial in enabling the functioning of democracy as a whole.
Holding institutions to account, to inform the general public, and to provide a forum of debate is not the exclusive right of large news organisations.
Regional publishers can be significantly impactful upon a local community.
They provide media diversity and support a public square of information – whether that be funeral notices or training young journalists.
So what’s the alternative?
A taxation scheme has been raised a possible solution to fund public interest journalism.
As a more direct approach, the tax-and-spend idea would result in journalism entrenching itself as a public good.
The outcome would be a greater volume of public interest journalism and encourage investment in core-news content.
“Public interest journalism needs to be properly funded, by the government if necessary,” O’Shea said.
“The solution is not to lean into the business model of big tech by creating a system to force platforms to share their profits with traditional media.”
Diversity of opinion and commentary is a key ingredient of a pluralist thriving democracy. The bargaining code simply provides another income stream from one monolith, such as Facebook, to another monolith like News Corp.
Public-interest journalism functions as a public good – and it’s time it was treated as such by the federal government.
Featured image – Facebook among Australian news media (AP Image/Lukas Coch)
Great article Charley, you’ve made some great points. It’s very concerning that the likes of Facebook only have to bargain with news organisations that earn over $150,000. That removes so many independent and regional news organisations from the extra funding – which they so desperately need!
Hopefully, a solution will be developed that supports all journalists and media companies to ensure diversity and democracy is upheld within Australia. I did like the idea of the funding being used to train journalists. Then the money goes back into the industry and therefore, strengthening it for the future.
Thanks for shedding light on this issue Charley. I wasn’t aware that the bargaining code only applied to major news organizations. You would think that after Covid and the closure of so many smaller newspapers, that any form of money coming into Australia’s media industry would be negotiated toward reviving the newspapers impacted by the pandemic.
Your reference to local newspapers as a pillar of democracy is so important. I think society too often relegates the role of watch dog journalism exclusively to major newsrooms and their coverage of federal government. But it’s the policies and actions of local government that affect our day to day lives – our democracy is in danger when there are no local or regional newspapers to hold local governments accountable.
I’m no whiz at issues re taxation, but the linked article and its proposed tax rebate to news media organizations that report on the ‘less glamorous but essential daily grind’ seems like a good option to start pumping money back into local and regional newspapers.
That Mumbrella link about the tax breaks for public interest journalism was really interesting. Hopefully the government pursues something like that in the future, but I guess the other thing stopping public interest journalism is the threat of lawsuits, which is another issue all together.
It’s a matter of legacy media, i.e. Channel 9, Channel 7, Newscorp, et al. benefitting from this code. I do wonder if journalists who work for any of these organisations will have their salaries increased.
You’re right to point out the issue of regional news outlets not gaining anything from this new agreement. It would be great if the ABC didn’t have to do all the heavy-lifting so to speak in rural Australia. It certainly is the Federal Government’s responsibility to fund public interest journalism at both local and national levels, and without interfering with or suppressing what is reported.
When the Facebook blackout happened, I was really surprised at some people’s over reliance on it to obtain news content.
It seems like the federal government recognised the need to invest in public interest journalism and engaged in a botched code to avoid paying for it themselves. The ACCC initially recommended, not mandated, that independent negotiations take place between news organisations and tech giants before the government intervened to try and establish the mandatory code. I think the tax reform raised in this article is a great idea as it would be a more general and wider industry regulation, not forced commercial deals between a few massive corporations.
I too didn’t realise that the code was only applicable to major news organisations. Now that major news organisations have reached deals with the tech giants and obtained new source of revenue, hopefully it can be transparently re-invested into journalism. Perhaps News corp could do something like re-instating the smaller and regional print publications that were removed last year.