General Press Release No. 251 (May 2002)

Press Council's Brisbane visit

Senator Richard Alston, the Minister for Communications, Information Technology and the Arts, and Dr Dale Spender, Chair of the Copyright Agency Limited, will meet members of the Australian Press Council in Brisbane next Thursday (23 May).

The Council, the self-regulatory body for the Australian press, is holding its first meeting in Brisbane since 1999. While in Brisbane, the Council will meet with industry and community leaders at the QUT Art Museum on Thursday evening. Senator Alston and Dr Spender will be among the guests.

The Council has made a submission on Senator Alston's proposed changes to cross-media ownership legislation. Professor Ken McKinnon, the Council's Chairman, will address the issues when he appears before the Senate Committee on the Environment, Communications, Information Technology and Arts in Canberra on Tuesday (21 May) at 3.15 pm.

The Council's submission raises a number of concerns about the government's proposals, some based on the experience in Canada, where similar legislation has had the opposite effect to that intended, resulting in more uniform news coverage, rather than more diversity.

Editor's note: The Press Council's submission the proposed cross-media legislation is available on the Council's website at http://www.presscouncil.org.au/pcsite/fop/crossmedia.html

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