Phil Taylor's papers
|
BACK TO : The Kosovo conflict 1999
Media Report from ABC (radio transcript) 
Thursday, March 25, 1999 Media Report from ABC (radio transcript) The Bulletin and the Crisis in Kosovo Robert Bolton: Today on The Media Report as NATO launches air strikes against Yugoslavia we talk to journalists from Kosovo and Belgrade who've been fighting a war of their own for the last two years. That's later. First today, it's less than a week since the government again firmly rejected any changes to media ownership rules. But the debate was reopened no sooner than Tuesday with this comment from James Packer. James Packer: In the past of course, as some of you may have noticed, we have supported the removal of cross-media restrictions but have opposed the lifting of any foreign ownership restrictions. The reason for our opposition to lifting foreign ownership has been the belief in the importance of Australians owning Australian media. We still believe that. But it is now plain, however that the pace of technological change has made this blanket aspiration impractical. The importance of global scale and the reality of the foreign competition that our media already faces now outweighs the benefit of trying to protect our media from foreign ownership. So it's now clear, in our view, that both cross-media and foreign ownership restrictions need to be lifted in the national interest. Robert Bolton: James Packer, heir to Consolidated Press and the Nine Network. He was speaking in Melbourne on Tuesday at the long-awaited re-launch of The Bulletin magazine. Yesterday the magazine had its Sydney launch in a bizarre function where a breathless Kerry Packer appeared by satellite from his property in the country. In front of invited guests he was interviewed by two of his employees, Bulletin Editor-in-Chief Max Walsh, and senior writer, Maxine McKew, who queried the about-turn on foreign ownership. Kerry Packer: Well I think the world changes, and you can't just sit there in isolation. You've got the internet, you've got all the other things that are happening, and you're going to have a breakdown in local ownership anyway. You may as well recognise that and allow the companies to grow to a size where they can compete on a world market. And unless you do that, you sentence these companies to being bit players, whereas I think the talent within the organisation is sufficient for the company to do a lot better on a broader scale. Max Walsh: Do you think the government is going to be receptive at this stage to changes in media regulations? Kerry Packer: I think in the long term it's going to happen anyway, and the internet's going to make it impossible for it not to happen. Max Walsh: In other words, it doesn't matter what the regulations are, they're going to be overridden by the facts of life? Kerry Packer: I think that sums it up, yes. Maxine McKew: So, Mr Packer, you would say then we will probably see some active convergence first, something will happen in the marketplace and if you like, Canberra will be left to catch up? Kerry Packer: I don't know that that's true. I think the Liberal Party did look at convergence and said, 'All right, we think it's going to happen; the Labor Party at that point in time said 'No, we don't think it's going to happen'. I think they're gradually changing their mind and I think in the end, in the not-too-distant future, everyone's going to come to the same conclusion. Maxine McKew: What indications have you had they're changing their mind, say all parties? Kerry Packer: Well the Shadow Minister for the Media made a very thoughtful speech the other day about this which was definitely a movement in the line of the Labor Party. Not all of it I would agree with but there parts of it, by all means which suggested there's an awareness that there is a movement there. Maxine McKew: How do you see now the significance I guess, of all major media players really lining up on this issue, particularly foreign ownership? Kerry Packer: Well I don't think they'll line up just on foreign ownership, I think you're going to have to get rid of cross-media at the same time because there's no point in foreign ownership if Rupert can't go and buy Channel 7 or whatever he wants to do. We would obviously be interested in John Fairfax. I think those companies need that sort of size and scale to be reasonable players within this country and maybe elsewhere. Robert Bolton: Kerry Packer. There's been a lot of speculation about what might have motivated this change of heart. Media analyst, Roger Coleman from CCZ Equities, claims it's all to do with the Packers wanting to protect the future of their PBL internet offshoot, 'Nine MSN', a joint venture with the American Microsoft. Roger Coleman: Well in respect of PBL, they've got a joint venture with Microsoft in respect of internet content. Microsoft might develop further progress down into the content based businesses. Unless they had 50% of Australian media, defined as a media content on web-TV, Microsoft might fall foul of the rules. In those circumstances it's good to get that cleared out of the way now. Robert Bolton: Right, so this is preparing the ground for Microsoft's further activity with Packer? Roger Coleman: Potentially. That's one way you could put it. The second way you could put this particular change of circumstance, or change of attitude, is the fact that Rupert and Kerry have so successfully wrapped Australian media, they own with Telstra, Pay TV, which is the only other new development. PBL's wrapped up with Microsoft the whole web-TV potential and the content that Microsoft might deliver to that PBL joint venture in the long-term. So there's no other issues. So in respect of that, they have both got to the stage now where it is not issue. If they give ground on foreign ownership they might be able to get the cross-media ownership rules relaxed, which in the case of NewsCorp gives them the Seven network prize, and in the case of PBL, Publishing and Broadcasting, Kerry Packer's company, or James Packer's company, gives them the Fairfax prize. So it's a question of what you give away to the government in return for something else. Robert Bolton: All right, so this is really just the first step in a bid to get the whole cross-media rules changed? Roger Coleman: Potentially there could be a motive in this, but one thing's been dead certain for the last ten years since 1986 when Keating brought in 'You can be a prince of press or a prince of TV, but not both' and tightened up on the cross-media ownership rules, since then there's been only one object at NewsCorp and the PBL group, and that's to get a relaxation of these things. Robert Bolton: Is there any suggestion that waiting in the wings somewhere offshore there is another international media company that wants to buy into, say, Fairfax, or into some other web or Pay-TV venture here? Roger Coleman: I would think that's extremely unlikely, given what's happened to United International Holdings in Australis. Now I think Australis has probably dropped over a billion dollars and those people with Century Communications also, another group in the Optus Vision joint venture, they've walked away having lost probably a billion dollars plus in Australia. Australia's a bad place to invest media-wise, and I was at a conference in New York in December last year where one of the family owners of one of the major newspaper groups said, 'We wouldn't want to do business in Australia. It's not much different from operating in Latin America or the Middle East.' So Australia has now got this media representation of a closed shop as far as overseas investors coming to Australia is concerned. Robert Bolton: But if the government did relax the rules on foreign ownership of media assets here? Roger Coleman: I don't think it makes any difference after the conversations I've had. Robert Bolton: But now clearly, the government has signalled again this week it is not going to relax cross-media foreign ownership rules on the media, so why are James and Kerry Packer going down this path? Roger Coleman: The next election is in two years, statistically it's every two-and-a-half-years; I'm sure Howard will need some help then from a media proprietor. Robert Bolton: Is it as cynical as that? Roger Coleman: Every election cycle costs the government in respect of free and tangible gifts to media proprietors, half a billion dollars per election cycle. Robert Bolton: So there is going to be a change in the media landscape in the next two-and-a-half-years in your view? Roger Coleman: There'll be some, depending on the composition of the Upper House, as usual. Robert Bolton: Given everything you've just described, how do you see the media landscape, media ownership landscape in, say, three years time? Roger Coleman: It's not going to be much different, except if the cross-media ownership rules relax, NewsCorp will be well advised to buy Seven Network for their sports rights, which will be handy to have effectively the cost of production of these things reduced even further by joint venturing with Foxtel, and you'd also eliminate a sports rights competitor for PBL. So if Rupert was to run Seven, it would be better. They don't have enough free-to-air time to broadcast all the sports rights that they've already got, so they might as well rationalise their bidding, and that's not occurring, so that's the first event, that Rupert comes back into Seven. And Kerry Stokes, who's not an operator but is a great trader of assets, can exit at a good price. The second thing is that Fairfax might come deeper and deeper under the PBL clutches with an outright takeover bid subject to the economic cycle. It will be typical that we have a major recession in 2001 or 2002, Fairfax earnings fall, and we have a standard carpet bag on the company. Robert Bolton: Roger Coleman from CCZ Equities, a stockbroker specialising in media, entertainment and communications. 60 MINUTES TICKING Announcer: After lying to Federal Parliament and the Australian people, and betraying his business partner, Paul Keating had his millions and an urgent need to bury the sting forever. Above all, he needed to ensure that Al Constantinidis kept his mouth shut. Robert Bolton: On Sunday, '60 Minutes' on the Packer's Nine Network, broadcast a damning story about the business activities of former Prime Minister Paul Keating. At The Bulletin launch, Maxine McKew asked Kerry Packer for his view of that controversial program. Kerry Packer: I think it was a major story, and I think it's a story that had to be told. I hope it doesn't go any further. Maxine McKew: Why's that? Kerry Packer: Because I don't think digging round the Prime Minister's past is beneficial to the country. Maxine McKew: You don't want to see any more mud slung? Kerry Packer: No, I don't want to see anything which downgrades the position. Maxine McKew: Well do you think '60 Minutes' went too far, then? Kerry Packer: No, I don't think it went too far at all, I think it did a good job but I think it's done enough. Max Walsh: Well how do you respond to Paul Keating's charges, 'all part of the Packer vendetta'? Kerry Packer: Well I wouldn't expect him to say anything else. And you know, it's pretty damn silly because I wasn't in the piggery and I wasn't with Constantinides, and I wasn't with the Commonwealth Bank, so that's pretty silly stuff. Max Walsh: And yet you can understand why he says that sort of thing. Kerry Packer: I can understand it, because he's got to say something. Robert Bolton: Kerry Packer. So I asked media analyst Roger Coleman if he thought there was any connection in the timing of that '60 Minutes' story and the raising of the cross-media question. Roger Coleman: I don't know. I think that essentially Paul Keating has got his own problems with this piggery, but in respect of his period of Prime Ministership, he was probably very much more independent on media issues than Prime Ministers normally are. Prime Ministers normally rely on an active backbench to roll a Prime Ministerial initiatives in respect to media, just like the Liberal Party cross backbench rolled Howard on the cross media relaxation. Robert Bolton: Could it be seen as a bit of a warning to politicians that media moguls are powerful, don't forget it? Roger Coleman: No, I don't know. Robert Bolton: Roger Coleman. Now none of this should obscure the launch of the re-invented Bulletin, which was after all, the point of the occasion. The 119-year-old Packer-owned magazine has a proud journalistic and literary tradition, although in recent years its circulation has fallen, it's profile diminished. So what does Editor-in-Chief Max Walsh hope to achieve? Max Walsh: I hope to see it absolutely essential reading amongst people who are politically aware, politically interested, concerned about where Australia's going, not only in the political sense but in a business sense and across a wide range of those socially important areas like education, health, the environment, science and of course we're throwing in the arts and sport, too. But the point is, it's a magazine which is directed towards people who are informed and want to have value-added in a way which they can't get elsewhere. I think that the quality newspapers are destined to reduce what I call the quality coverage. Of course the margin's being squeezed in economic terms, the classifieds are being screwed by the web basically, and they've got a real challenge on their hands, and it's very hard for them to respond because they're like great big battleships. And so I see an opportunity there to produce in one magazine the very best of what you would have to, in the past, reef through quite a few newspapers to find and which now in future, won't be available in newspapers, at least not to the same extent. Robert Bolton: Is there what people call investigative reporting? Max Walsh: It's not what I call investigative reporting, no. It's much more authoritative analysis and commentary. I mean for example somebody like Laurie Oakes who's been in the press gallery in Canberra for 25 years, who is a person of undoubted knowledge in terms of background and perspicacity about politics, that's what I'm talking more about that than I am about investigative journalism. I mean investigative journalism tends to be turning over stones; I've got no objection to investigative journalism, and if we get a good piece we'll certainly do it, but I don't see that as being our genre particularly, I think it's much more in the value-added area. For example in technology, we've got people who are steeped in technology who can relate it to the ordinary person, to the ordinary informed person. Robert Bolton: In it's heyday it was a very important magazine for the arts, for writing, for literature and so on, is that not so important now? Max Walsh: Quite honestly, it's true, it was probably most famous in terms of its contribution to Australian literature, with Lawson and Paterson, Breaker Morant and a whole host of writers and poets. To be perfectly honest you couldn't make a commercial buck doing that these days. But we're not turning our back entirely on the literary tradition by the way, we intend, once we get this launched and away, to have a regular literary supplement. About once every three months it'll be a tack-on, it will be quite a substantial publication attached to The Bulletin. So we're not ignoring our history and tradition but we've got to be realistic and see what works in 1999, what's going to work into the next century. I mean quite frankly, when you had Paterson and Lawson, you didn't have radio or television or movies. Robert Bolton: What sort of circulation are you aiming for? Max Walsh: I've set a target and it's a fairly provision target of 100,000 by the end of next year. We're currently doing about 74,000 so we're talking in terms of 30% plus increase over the period of 18 months, which is an heroic proposition. I don't think it's beyond that but if I fall short I won't be terribly disappointed provided we're moving in that direction. Robert Bolton: With that sort of 100,000 circulation does the advertising base support the magazine in its entirety or do you still need to draw on the rest of the group? Max Walsh: I believe it will support it. It's a case of finding out for yourself. I can point out that BRW with a smaller circulation than that, though it's a specialist circulation, makes a good solid profit on a circulation of between 70,000 and 80,000. The Financial Review, on a daily basis sells less than 90,000, is enormously successful. So if you get the right audience you should be able to sell it to the advertisers, that's the trick. And that's why you have to position the magazine so that you are delivering a particular audience to the potential advertising, so that's what we're trying to do. Robert Bolton: Max Walsh. Trevor Sykes is a Senior Writer and columnist at The Australian Financial Review; and he's a former Editor of The Bulletin. What does he think of the new look? Trevor Sykes: It looks pretty good I think. It's got a good clean white cover which is always a great idea, it makes you stand out a bit on the news-stands; it's got a fairly good lead story in it; there's a number of good contributors to it. If it can keep up this, it should go well. But mind you, what we're looking at is the first issue here. Anyone with a bit of fire power behind them can produce a good first issue. When we're really going to find out about whether The Bulletin's got staying power is probably on about the fifth or sixth issue, if they can maintain this sort of quality, they deserve to do well. Robert Bolton: Isn't the problem though that there really isn't a market for this type of magazine any more, that people can get all their news and views and information on a daily basis from the existing media? Trevor Sykes: Well certainly that's the biggest single problem that Max Walsh faces. I had to face the same problem and it's only become more intense over the 15 years since I left the chair there. No-one wishes him success more heartily than I do, because they're in competition with both the daily papers and with television. I feel that part of the answer to that is you've got to have an attitude, and I'm not sure whether The Bulletin has yet developed an attitude under its new leadership, but people sooner or later have got to know what you stand for. Robert Bolton: When you say an attitude, you mean like a front, like an attitude on what? Trevor Sykes: Well in my day I didn't fall in with the line of the daily papers at the time, and I think if you're a news magazine in such an environment as Australia, you've got to do something that's a bit different from the daily papers. But Max is a veteran, I'm sure he's aware of that. You've got to identify yourself, you've got to give readers a reason for buying you. Robert Bolton: Now once upon a time the literary role and the role for cartoonists was very important in The Bulletin. Is this something that can be revived, or is that history? Trevor Sykes: It always depends upon the material that's at your disposal. We ran the Literary Supplement for something like four years in The Bulletin when I was editing it; I don't think it got us more than $1000 in advertising totally. It cost us money, it didn't seem to win us any goodwill with the literary establishment or the publishers, we were still being reviled as being a Packer magazine by the brainless literary left. Robert Bolton: Trevor Sykes. And it'll be worth watching the entertainment pages of The Bulletin following yesterday's $600-million bid by ACP for Hoyts cinemas. In the lead-up to today's NATO bombing of Yugoslavia, journalists on all sides of the conflict have been fighting their own war; their weapon? the internet. News and propaganda have become blurred on the World Wide Web. Leading international broadcasters and wire services have been making use of a website called The Kosovo Crisis Centre. This is co-ordinated by an electrical engineer, Mentor Cana, and originated not from Kosovo, but from New Jersey in the United States. Mentor Cana: A few years ago, me and a few of my friends started to put in some Albanian-related information on the internet. We realised there was not much at the time so we started pulling together some information and as a result the Albanian.com was born, which is the Albanian home page on the internet, as well as the Albanian news and information network as well as the Albanian discussion list. Robert Bolton: Now would you say you're the main information provider on the internet relating to the crisis in Kosovo at the moment? Mentor Cana: I would say so. At this point we have the Kosovo Crisis Centre and various newspapers from Kosovo such as Koha Ditore which is also present on the internet. I would like to stress that in the Kosovo Crisis Centre we usually get information from various newspapers, the Council of Human Rights and Freedom in Pristina as well as other media, and we primarily distribute the news, we do not write any news or information. We get our information from various sources and we distribute them around the world. Robert Bolton: Well can I ask you, wouldn't it be better if you were running the Kosovo Crisis Centre if you were actually in Kosovo, in Pristina the capital? Mentor Cana: Actually that would have been a problem because we wouldn't have the freedom of activity that we do have here in the States. From here we're able to do lots of activities related to that, such as putting the information on the net at the site, as well as distributing them all around the world. Obviously the connection to the internet from Kosovo or anywhere in the Albanian land, including Albania, is slow and not as fast and capacity to relate it as is here. Robert Bolton: Now interestingly, almost everything on your website is in English, you're not really directing it to Albanians in the world, but to English-speaking people. Mentor Cana: As a matter of fact, yes. The idea of the Kosovo Crisis Centre was to show the world the true route of the Kosovo conflict and who the true aggressor is. As such we are providing the information only in English. Robert Bolton: What evidence do you have that your site is actually contributing in any real way to the outcome of the crisis there? Mentor Cana: As an evidence I could definitely list the fact that many online news agencies, such as CNN online, BBC, MSNBC and Yahoo for example, they have links to our Kosovo Crisis Centre and as a matter of fact, France-Presse has written an article comparing shall I say, the cyber-war between Albanians and the Serbs in Kosovo, and our site has been listed there. Robert Bolton: Of course you're not actually an impartial player, I mean you're representing one side, it's very partisan and a lot of the information that you get comes from things like the Kosovo Government Information Agency, which has obviously got a line to push. Mentor Cana: Definitely. Our task is to provide information as we see fit. And the truth is that the whole world has condemned the Serb aggression in Kosovo, and as such we think that the truth is on our side, and the real aggressors are the Serbs in this conflict. Robert Bolton: Well that's a very subjective thing. Do you provide balance in your website, I mean do you look at other issues? Mentor Cana: We try to provide balance by putting lots of reports by various international organisations as well as the Human Rights Watch and others. Robert Bolton: Mentor Cana from the Kosovo Crisis Centre. A year ago a Belgrade paper claimed the Kosovans were winning the information war through better use of the internet. That claim came from Zoran Stanojevic, Editor of the English edition of Vreme, an independent magazine based in Belgrade. I asked Zoran Stanojevic if he thought the Kosovans still have the upper hand. Zoran Stanojevic: It has changed a little bit. When I wrote that story that was almost a year ago. I have to say that ethnic Albanians from Kosovo were really doing much better job on internet than the Serbs. That was a bit of a paradox because there are no, or at that time, there were not any internet service providers in Kosovo, and there were very few people who were using internet in Kosovo. But you have to bear in mind that ethnic Albanians have a very large population living outside of Kosovo in western European countries and in the United States. They have many young people studying in the United States, and they were using internet and they were creating all those sites. While on the other side, internet was not taken so seriously by the Serb government and most of the Serbs who might compete in that. Robert Bolton: Do you think that the Albanians' and Kosovans' use of the internet has affected the progress of the conflict and the way that the Serbs and President Milosovic have responded to it? Zoran Stanojevic: I think this has at least contributed to this. I wouldn't say that the internet was the main tool that they have used, I think that they have much more other things at their disposal, like lobbying in foreign governments and parliaments. But the internet is also very good tool to use because it's very cheap to produce some contents for internet, and it is a world-wide the minute you put it on the web. So it has something to do with this thing, but I wouldn't say that at this stage the internet is having a most important role. Robert Bolton: Now just to talk about the media more generally: is there a conflict in Yugoslavia in the media between those that are pro-government and those that are more moderate? Zoran Stanojevic: There is a huge conflict. First of all, those who are pro-government are mostly financed by the government, while the others, those who are more moderate or considered anti-government, are having all sorts of obstacles in doing their businesses. From the beginning they have to pay large taxes, and we have a new law on information that is really tough. I don't think that such law exists in any other country. That means if somebody raises the charges against you, the trial has to be in 24 hours, you have only 24 hours to bring the evidences that what you were writing or broadcasting was truth, and if you fail to do that, you're getting fined and you have to pay the fine which is enormous, in another 24 hours. It means that you have like 72 hours after you broadcast or published information before you are fined and the fines could completely destroy a news magazine, a newspaper, or broadcasting station. It happened today that the Albanian independence newspaper with a high circulation, Koha Ditore. Robert Bolton: This is based in Pristina, the capital of Kosovo? Zoran Stanojevic: Yes, they are fined $30,000 for something that they have printed which they can't pay so easily, it's a big question if they can pay that at all. So that might mean that they might have to shut down their operation, which will mean that there will not be I would say the resourceful and trustful independent newspaper in Albania in Kosovo any more. Robert Bolton: Is this a law enacted by the government of Slobodan Milosovic specifically against journalists? Zoran Stanojevic: It is difficult to say if it is by Slobodan Milosovic's government because Milosovic is now the President of Federation, and this law is imposed by the Serbian government, which is just one of the two republics that make this Federation. But it is influenced by Milosovic and it is very much against the independent media, because he can't control independent media in the way he can control his own State media. He has initialised this law that has I would say the axe, or the head of every editor in Serbia so he has to think that if he writes something that the government doesn't like, he can be tried and fined in the way that he cannot pay. Robert Bolton: Zoran Stanojevic from Vreme, an independent magazine based in Belgrade. That's it from me for today. Production by David Fisher and John Diamond. The Media Report is broadcast every Thursday at 8.30am and repeated at 8.30pm on Radio National, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's national radio network of ideas. |