Regulating the Media
Various regulatory bodies have been established in Australia to ensure transparency and accountability in the media, particularly in issues such as hate and discrimination. Regulators of the media include the Australian Press Council (APC) for print media, and the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) for electronic media - namely broadcasting, radio communications, telecommunications and internet content. However, the regulation of racism, racial hatred, and antisemitism is, at best, patchy.
The Australian Press Council
The Australian Press Council ultimately aims to strike a balance between ensuring accountability and safeguarding freedom of the press. It does not have any single formula by which newspapers should be regulated. But its charter does advise newspapers against gratuitously emphasising the race, nationality or religion of the subject, particularly where that person is suspected or arrested for a crime, unless it is strictly relevant. The APC’s Complaints Committee hears complaints by members of the public against newspapers and magazines published in Australia. Among other things, it hears complaints about discrimination or racial stereotypes in newspapers. Once a complaint is made, the APC can mediate a solution, or if mediation fails, can make recommendations and submit them to the full council for adjudication. This adjudication is expected to be published by the offending newspaper. If this is not done, the matter can be remitted to the APC for further action.
The Australian Communications and Media Authority
The Australian Communications and Media Authority aims to ensure that broadcast media upholds community standards and is responsive to the needs of the public. It operates via a range of consultative and advisory committees. The ACMA also deals with internet content that may be prohibited under the regulatory scheme in the Broadcasting Services Act 1992. The content which is regulated is pornography, instructions in crime, violence and drug use, child pornography, bestiality and excessively violent or sexually violent material. At present, that scheme does not empower the ACMA to prohibit extremist hate material on the web.
This poses a particular problem for dealing with instances of hate on the web which either emanate from Australia, or are available in Australia. There are home grown sites which, among other things, reproduce the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, engage in Holocaust denial and vilify Jews. Attempts to use the formal process of regulation have been unsuccessful. This is disappointing, because managing hatred through regulatory bodies would be a far more appropriate way of responding to hatred than appealing to courts of law. |
Antisemitism 
