Regulating News on the Internet

To what extent should the Press Council be dealing with complaints about on-line material? In this updated and edited version of a discussion paper prepared for the Council, journalist member Sybil Nolan gives her views.

Before the internet became a user-friendly information tool, it was the domain of academics and researchers. This has resulted in a free-speech, anti-regulation ethos among web publishers which, arguably, is even more strongly articulated than the traditional commitment of the Western press to free speech.

Lawyers used to compare the internet to the old West, but gradually, the rule of law has been imposed. In Australia, there has been a number of defamation suits over material published on websites and electronic bulletin boards, and some state governments have enacted legislation to deal with offensive content.

1999 has proved a watershed year in the development of Australian regulation of the internet. The Federal Government has doggedly pressed ahead with plans to bring the internet into a regulatory framework. At the same time, the Productivity Commission has carried out an inquiry into the broadcasting industry, which has turned out to be the most extensive review of media regulation ever conducted in Australia. The Commission's draft report is a commendably hype-free document that attempts to analyse how digital technology and convergence have transformed the topography of the Australian media landscape, and how policy-makers and regulators should prepare for the journey into a truly digital future.

Against the backdrop of these two significant events, the Australian Press Council, which has existed since 1976 to deal with complaints about the editorial content of newspapers and magazines, has been grappling with the question of how to adapt its role to an on-line world.

Complaints about on-line publications have already started to trickle in to the Council.

The Council has endorsed the approach adopted by its executive secretary, Jack Herman, of accepting matters arising from the on-line version of a printed publication of a member of the Council, and referring all other on-line matters to the ABA. But it has also begun the task of formulating a considered policy on the handling of complaints regarding on-line matter.

Some of the Council's constituent members have voiced the view that editors should be responsible for material published by their journalists under their mastheads - in whatever form the material is published.

Government approach

However, the Press Council's formulation of an approach to on-line complaints is partly contingent on the Federal Government and its decision-making about who should play on-line content regulator. And there are other considerations, such as what resources the Council can afford to sink into on-line matters, and whether a body dedicated to ensuring standards in the print media has a credible jurisdiction over on-line publication.

These are far from minor issues. The growth and increasing diversity of e-publishing is truly remarkable, and difficult to predict in the future. The National Library's catalogue of on-line journals includes more than 1000 Australian publications, and there are far more in existence. The Press Council's own constituent membership already produces more than 75 e-publications - about 50 associated with ACP's magazines, 19 with Fairfax newspapers, eight at News Ltd, and a further number associated with regional publications such as the Warrnambool Standard.

As the Productivity Commission noted in its draft report, no one involved in media is certain where this boom in internet publishing will lead and if it will end. In part, it will depend on future factors such as the interactivity of digital television. "Many existing media interests are heavily investing in the Internet," the commission noted. "While some appear to be hedging their bets in case the Internet emerges as a serious competitor for existing media, others are working on integrating it into their business in a more complementary way."

The Press Council needs to consider whether it can cope with the volume and variety of on-line publication. Its own members' sites range from simple home pages containing publicity and contact points, through text-rich replicas of parent publications, to innovative websites that are highly interactive and also blur the boundaries of newspaper format by using audio reports filed by newspaper reporters.

State-of-the-art

A state-of-the-art website is a hybrid of text, digital animation, video and sound, and of private and public communication: traditional print formats will only continue to decrease in relevance in web-publishing. There are glaring definitional and technical problems to resolve for any press council that wants to play a role as a self-regulator of on-line content. But looking on the bright side, constituent members of Council who are involved in on-line publishing employ people whose expertise could be applied successfully to these challenges.

There are further issues to consider.

Beyond the online publications of the Council's own membership, there are probably hundreds more credible on-line publications which might come within its purview. The Council accepts complaints about newspapers and magazines whether their publishers are members of the Council or not. Given the proliferation of on-line publication, it needs to consider seriously whether its on-line policy should be limited to accepting complaints about member e-publications.

There is also the complex issue of how to deal with portals, the supersites which provide multiple-entry points to the World Wide Web. Take for example, ninemsn, a portal which is a joint venture of Microsoft and the PBL entity, ecorp, that opens the gate to homepages or websites of more than 50 magazines published by ACP and its associated interests. ACP is a constituent member of the Press Council, but PBL is also a television broadcaster, used to dealing with the Australian Broadcasting Authority (ABA).

The ABA is the Federal Government's anointed regulator of on-line content, even though the internet is not by definition a pure broadcast medium. The Broadcasting Services Amendment (Online Services) Act, which comes into effect on 1 January next year, makes the authority responsible for policing offensive content on websites accessible in Australia.

The on-line amendments are aimed at material that is obscene, extremely violent, or amounts to vilification. They treat website content as the equivalent of film for the purposes of classification, and provide a mechanism to force the taking down of content that is rated X or RC (refused classication). They also require on-line sites carrying R-rated material to impose age-verification procedures on users.

But on-line publishing is in the odd position of being half inside, half outside the broadcasting reglatory framework. The on-line amendments require internet publishers to develop an industry code of practice dealing with matters such as children's access to internet accounts. But the industry is NOT subject to the provisions of the Broadcasting Services Act (BSA) which require broadcasters' codes of practice to promote accuracy and fairness in news and current affairs programs.

The Productivity Commission's draft report is as interesting for what it does not say about on-line services as for what it does. It does not treat on-line publishers as broadcasters, nor does it make any recommendation for the "accuracy and fairness" provisions in S123(2) of the BSA to be extended to the on-line industry, even though it advocates closer ABA scrutiny of traditional broadcasters.

It seems the door is left open for the Press Council - if it so decides - to offer its services to responsible on-line publishers who seek assistance in (self-)regulating journalistic content on their sites.

At present, e-publishers are preoccupied with the difficult task of bedding down the new regulatory arrangements regarding obscene and violent material. But as this controversy abates and as the profile and influence of e-publishing grows the focus of its consumers' concern will move to new issues such as fair and accurate reporting, and prompt correction of published errors.

There are many new players in the Australian media, partly due to the advent of web publishing. Some of the Press Council's members already have an interconnectivity with new players, through organisations like the Internet Industry Association. Such relationships may prove helpful in resolving how the Council should define its role as an on-line (self-)regulator.

SYBIL NOLAN

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