ACMA has already got Alan Jones and 2GB in its sights

Ray Finkelstein QC’s media inquiry may not pursue bias in the media, but The Power Index hears that broadcasting regulator ACMA has already got Alan Jones and 2GB in its sights.

ACMA has confirmed with The Power Index it is investigating three separate complaints of bias or factual inaccuracy against Jones, and another two complaints relating to fellow 2GB presenter Chris Smith.

Since the complaints were made up to six months ago, it’s likely that some or all are close to resolution.

If ACMA’s findings are adverse, they will be presented to Jones, Smith and 2GB for comment, in which case, one can expect to see lawyers at six paces. We certainly don’t pretend to know what’s coming, but if ACMA does take on Jones it would be big.

Back in 2008, a Senate committee told ACMA it needed to get tougher on penalties when complaints were upheld. If a broadcaster breached the same part of the code twice, ACMA should “impose additional licence conditions”, the committee said. If the broadcaster did it again, ACMA should “Pursue a civil penalty; refer the matter for prosecution as an offence; suspend or cancel the license; or impose an enforceable undertaking.”

The complaints against Jones and 2GB follow an ABC Media Watch program in March, which drew attention to two neglected sections in ACMA’s broadcasting codes of practice. These require commercial TV and radio licencees to “promote accuracy and fairness in news and current affairs programs” and ensure that “reasonable efforts are made… to present significant viewpoints when dealing with controversial issues of public importance”.

The Media Watch program suggested that Jones’s broadcasts on the carbon tax repeatedly failed both these tests, in that he rarely, if ever, interviewed believers in man-made global warming and failed to give them a fair hearing when he did.

Media Watch also pointed out that ACMA could only investigate such breaches if someone complained. And, immediately after the program, the activist network Get Up! did just that.

We’ll soon see whether it’s worked. But it will make life much harder for Jones if it does.