Media & Broadcasting Law & Lawyers

Media & Broadcasting Law & Lawyers News

News updates and further information - Media & Broadcasting Lawyers

Are you looking for a lawyer with experience in Media & technology law? At no cost to you we can help you find the right solicitor who has deep industry sector experience that allows them to provide valuable practical advice and innovative solutions over and above our first-rate base of technical know-how. In addition they can also provide specialist advice to the telecommunications sector, including commercial, transactional and regulatory aspects.

If you need legal help regarding any aspect of media and broadcasting law, then please complete your free legal enquiry form on the right, or click here.

The media related sectors include:

• Internet & digital
• Publishing
• Broadcasting and music
• Privacy and data protection issues
• Content delivery
• Intellectual property and libel

If you need legal help regarding any aspect of media and broadcasting law, then please complete your free legal enquiry form on the right, or click here.

The main pieces of Australian legislation pertaining to media, broadcasting and telecommunications law include the following:

Australia
Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy
Legislation relating to Communications and technology

Commonwealth
Australian Communications and Media Authority Act 2005
An Act to establish the Australian Communications and Media Authority

Broadcasting Services Amendment (Media Ownership) Act 2006
An Act to ammend the Broadcasting Services Act 1992

Do Not Call Register Act 2006
An Act to establish a Do Not Call Register, and for other purposes

Telecommunications (Low-impact Facilities) Determination 1997 (Cth)
This gives the power to install certain types of facilities defined in the act or temporary defence facilities.

Telecommunications Act 1997 (Cth)
An Act about telecommunications

Telecommunications Code of Practice 1997 (Cth)
Carriers must comply with the conditions set out in Schedule 3 in the Ministerial Telecommunications Code of Practice 1997

Telecommunications Competition Act 2002
An Act to amend the law relating to telecommunications

Year 2000 Information Disclosure Act 1999 (Cth)
An Act to encourage the voluntary disclosure and exchange of information about year 2000 computer problems and remediation efforts

Courts & tribunals and their decisions
Australia
Australian Competition Tribunal
The Tribunal is a review body. A review by the Tribunal is a re-hearing or a re-consideration of a matter and it may perform all the functions and exercise all the powers of the original decision-maker for the purposes of review. It can affirm, set aside or vary the ...

Australian Press Council
Australian Press Council Decisions 1976-

Federal Court of Australia
Federal Court of Australia hears matters concerning federal media and telecommunications laws

Organisations
Australia
Australian Information Industry Association
AIIA helps people play a meaningful role in the broader ICT(Information & Computer Technology) industry by collating and distributing industry statistics; providing opportunities for participation in the industry and promoting the industry through major programs and events. ...

Australian Mobile Telecommunications Association
AMTA's mission is to promote a socially, environmentally and financially responsible and successful mobile telecommunications industry in Australia. To achieve this, AMTA provides a forum in which all key stakeholders can discuss issues influencing the development of ...

Australian Telecommunications Users Group
ATUG is committed to the development of fair and open competition in telecommunications services as well as better prices and better quality services.

Centre for Media and Communications Law
The Centre for Media and Communications Law undertakes large scale research projects, holds public seminars about legal and regulatory developments, supports research visits from Australian and international academics, lawyers and policy makers.

Clayton UTZ
The media and telecommunications industry is characterised by rapid regulatory and technological change. In this environment, Clayton's UTZ advisers provide timely, effective and industry-specific advice. Clayton UTZ advise major telcos, television broadcasters, government ...

Communications Alliance
Communications Alliance was formed in 2006 to provide a unified voice for the Australian communications industry. Although the Communications Alliance has its genesis in the merger of the Australian Communications Industry Forum (ACIF) and the Service Providers Association ...

Communications and Media Law Association Inc
CAMLA is an association of professionals and academics interested in law and policy relating to communications and the media

Communications Law Centre
An independent, non-profit, public interest organisation specialising in media and communications law and policy.

Communications Law Centre
This site provides Fact Sheets on the following topics: Confidential Information | Disability Discrimination | Privacy

Consumers Telecommunications Network
The Consumers' Telecommunications Network (CTN) is a national coalition of consumer and community organisations that represents community interests in the national policy arena on telecommunications issues. CTN is an important voice promoting better access, quality of ...

Electronic Frontiers Australia
Electronic Frontiers Australia Inc. is a non-profit national organisation representing Internet users concerned with on-line freedoms and rights. EFA was formed in January 1994 and incorporated under South Australian law in May 1994. The site provides information about ...

Internet Industry Association
The Internet Industry Association is Australia's national Internet industry organisation. Members include telecommunications carriers; content creators and publishers; web developers; e-commerce traders and solutions providers; hardware vendors; systems integrators; banks, ...

Internet Society of Australia
ISOC-AU is a non-profit, user-focused society founded in 1996, which promotes development of the Internet in Australia to benefit the whole community, including business, academic, professional and private Internet users.

National Deaf Television
The aim of NDTV (National Deaf Television) is to have a regular Deaf TV program on national television in Australia, with Auslan (Australian Sign Language), captions and voice-overs to make it accessible for everyone.

Office of Film & Literature Classification
The OFLC site enables industry to find out how to apply for classification from the Office of Film & Literature Classification. An overview on the particular application type is provided on this website. A kit with relevant information, instructions to assist with applying ...

Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman
The Telecommunication Industry Ombudsman was created to resolve disputes between telecommunications companies, including Internet service providers, and residential and small business customers.

Telephone Information Services Standard Council
TISSC ia an independent regulatory body funded by the telephone information services industry

International
International Telecommunication Union
An international organization/site, involved in developing and managing telecommunication resources

Society for Computers & Law
UK site to encouragement and development of law-related IT and IT-related law

United States
Electronic Frontier Foundation
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) was created to defend peoples rights to think, speak, and share ideas, thoughts, and needs using new technologies, such as the Internet and the World Wide Web. EFF is the first to identify threats to basic rights online and to ...

Electronic Privacy Information Center
EPIC is a public interest research center in Washington, D.C. It was established in 1994 to focus public attention on emerging civil liberties issues and to protect privacy, the First Amendment, and constitutional values.

Federal Communications Commission
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent United States government agency, directly responsible to Congress. The FCC was established by the Communications Act of 1934 and is charged with regulating interstate and international communications by radio, ...

Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press
The Reporters Committee for Freedom of Information, is an "nonprofit organization dedicated to providing free legal assistance to journalist". This site is concerned with the rights and privileges of journalists in gaining access to any information deemed in the public ...

Organisations - Government
Australia
ACMA - How regulation works
Austrlian Communications and Media Authority is the government body responsible for the regulation of broadcasting, the internet, radiocommunications and telecommunications. This site provides information about ACMA's role in each area.

Australia. Parliament. Senate Information Technologies Committee
This site contains the on-line pages of the Senate Select Committee on Information Technologies of the 39th Parliament of Australia.

Australia. Parliament. Senate Standing Committee on Environment, Communications, Information Technology and the Arts
Reports and hearings into telecommunications and broadcasting legislation.

Australian Communications and Media Authority
The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) is responsible for the regulation of broadcasting, radiocommunications, telecommunications and online content.

Australian Competition & Consumer Commission
The Telecommunications Group has prime responsibility for administering the Commission's functions for competition and economic regulation of telecommunications

DBCDE All funding, programs and support
Find information on all the forms of funding and other support the Department makes available to organisations, industry and individuals, with links to relevant guidelines and application forms.

Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy
This site contains links to resources and news about conmmunications and technology and links to policy and legislation regarding media and broadcasting and Australia post.

National Competition Council
The National Competition Council was established by all Australian governments in November 1995 to act as a policy advisory body to oversee their implementation of National Competition Policy (NCP).

NetAlert
NetAlert is the Australian Government’s internet safety initiative which consists of a wide range of activities.

Commonwealth
Australian Government Information Management Office
Info Access provides a gateway to connects to Government information from a variety of sources, including fed.gov.au - the Commonwealth Government Entry Point; www.gov.au - entry point for Australian Governments; gold.gov.au - Commonwealth public service contact and function ...

The Constitutional Position

The Commonwealth's legislative controls on media ownership can be divided into two broad categories:

specific controls relating to broadcasting contained in the Broadcasting Services Act 1992. These derive from the Commonwealth's power to make laws with respect to electronic communications under section 51(v) of the Constitution
generic controls relating to commercial activity such as those contained in the Trade Practices Act 1974 and the Foreign Acquisitions and Takeovers Act 1975. These derive from the Commonwealth's powers regarding trade and corporations under sections 51(i) and 51(xx) of the Constitution.
Thus while the Commonwealth is able to impose prescriptive conditions on broadcasting licensees, its legislative reach over print media ownership is largely limited to general competition law and foreign acquisitions.

The Role of the ACMA

The administration of the Broadcasting Services Act is the responsibility of the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA). This body commenced operation in July 2005, having subsumed the functions of the Australian Broadcasting Authority (ABA) and the Australian Communications Authority (ACA).

Definition of Control

The focus of cross-media ownership limits under the Act is on control. Section 6 of Schedule 1 of the Act provides a simple '15 per cent' rule for establishing whether a person has control of a company. If a person has company interests (for example voting, shareholding, or dividend interests) in a company exceeding 15 per cent, then in the absence of proof to the contrary the person is deemed to be in a position to exercise control of the company. This section does not apply where another person who is not an associate of the first person has interests in the company exceeding 50 per cent. The Schedule also makes it clear that a person can be in control of a company with less than 15 per cent. For example, a holding of 10 per cent would constitute control if no other persons had more than 2 per cent and such other persons did not act in concert. Alternatively, a holding of 51 per cent might not constitute control if the holder had given undertakings to a lender. In such circumstances the lender (with no direct company interests) might be in a position of control. The '15 per cent' rule does not only apply to interests held directly in a company. Section 7 of Schedule 1 provides for it to be applied to a succession or chain of companies.

The ACMA has a page with information on ACMA opinions on control issues.

ABA Investigations

The former ABA conducted a number of investigations into control issues. Reports of these inquiries are available from this page. Some of the major findings on ownership and control include:

an April 1995 determination that although Mr Kerry Packer held 17.7 per cent of the Fairfax newspaper group he was not in a position of control because Mr Conrad Black had a higher percentage interest
approval of the overseas CanWest Global Communications' purchase of the Ten network. The ABA determined that subordinated and convertible debentures were not company interests in the terms of the legislation. Although CanWest financed 57.5 per cent of the equity capital invested in the purchase, its voting rights were restricted to 15 per cent. In April 1997, following a number of share transactions and Board membership changes, the ABA determined that CanWest now controlled Ten and ordered it to take action to remedy the breach
a March 1999 finding that Mr Brian Powers and Mr Kerry Packer were not in breach of the cross-media rules with regard to their interests in Fairfax.

Attempted Amendment of the Rules in 2002

On 21 March 2002 the Government introduced the Broadcasting Services Amendment (Media Ownership) Bill 2002. The purpose of the Bill was to remove controls on the foreign ownership of television, to provide for exemptions to the cross-media rules, and to ensure that local news services were maintained in regional areas subject to exemptions from the cross-media rules.

The Bill was referred to the Senate Environment, Communications, Information and the Arts Committee. The main recommendation of the Committee was that the Bill be amended so that in regional markets, cross-media exemptions only be allowed in relation to proposals that could result in a media company having cross-ownership in only two of the three generic categories of newspapers, radio and television. It also made recommendations to promote regional news and current affairs coverage and to encourage disclosure of cross-media interests. The Government accepted these recommendations and introduced the Broadcasting Services Amendment (Media Ownership) Bill 2002 (No.2) which incorporated the changes. The Bill was passed by the House of Representatives in December 2003, but was not approved by the Senate and lapsed with the Federal election of October 2004.

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Media & Broadcasting Law & Lawyers Updates

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