Senator Andrew Bartlett
Saturday, April 30, 2005
 
The advertisements commercial television don’t want you to see

Occasionally in my younger days I used to fantasise about winning heaps on the lottery, so that instead of working at the slow, often frustrating grind of grassroots politics to try to change people's minds on important issues, I could just run heaps of television advertisements at peak viewing time.

However, judging by current events, even if I'd won millions I wouldn't have had much joy. The organisation representing the commercial television networks, ironically called "Free TV Australia", has refused to screen advertisements criticising the Howard Government over its approach to negotiating the sea boundaries covering the oil and gas fields offshore from East Timor.

You can see the adverts yourself by clicking here – (story and link pinched from the Crikey Daily). Supposedly, the TV stations are concerned these ads might be defamatory!

Free TV Australia has just put in a submission to an inquiry being held about Parliamentary Privilege, in which they state:

“Free TV recognises that the rules governing contempt of Parliament need to address the sometimes competing interests of ensuring that the conduct of committee proceedings is not compromised and the value of a free flow of information.”

“Free TV submits that it is extremely important that the rules governing contempt of Parliament only restrict the free flow of information in circumstances where there is a substantial risk that Committee proceedings will be seriously prejudiced.

Parliamentary privilege is an ancient, much misunderstood concept, which I won’t go into here. As the significance and respect placed on the Parliament has declined, respect for Parliamentary privilege has also declined. However, it is clear that the “free flow of information”, which the commercial television networks value so much that it should outweigh contempt of Parliament in all but the most serious circumstances, is also something that should apparently only flow when it is in their commercial interest.

posted by Andrew Bartlett @ Saturday, April 30, 2005 Permalink
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