Credit: Mark Leishman via Unsplash
SBS and ABC have responded to One Nation leader Pauline Hanson's vow to cut the public broadcasters during a National Press Club address this week.
Hanson said if One Nation won government, the ABC would continue operating in regional, rural and remote areas, but would be placed behind a subscription paywall in all other areas.
"From its chairman down, the ABC has proven itself to be completely in denial about its profoundly transparent political bias and the activists in its ranks," said Hanson.
Hanson also said there was no longer a need for SBS.
"The SBS will be gone. There's no need for it anymore; the internet has overtaken the need for it," she told the National Press Club.
AdNews approached both broadcasters for comment on the senator's statements.
"The ABC provides trusted news, children's programs, quality Australian entertainment, a range of local media services, emergency broadcasting and much more to all Australians on an equal basis, in line with our Charter, for free," an ABC spokesperson told AdNews.
"This principle of universal equity of access is increasingly important in a world where the majority of content is only available behind a paywall.
"Australians should be able to continue to rely on the ABC as the most trusted source of news and information.
"Australian music and other creative industries would also be substantially negatively impacted without a freely available ABC and its numerous varied services."
Meanwhile SBS was more diplomatic in its response.
"SBS does not provide commentary on the policies of political parties, consistent with our obligations as an impartial public broadcaster," an SBS spokesperson told AdNews.
Meanwhile, Alexandra Wake, professor of journalism at RMIT's School of Media and Communication, said Hanson's proposal would risk creating a two-tiered information system.
"Pauline Hanson's proposal to defund SBS and shift the ABC to a subscription model in metropolitan areas fundamentally misunderstands the role and value of public service media in Australia," Wake said.
"The ABC and SBS are not perfect institutions, no media organisation is. They are rightly subject to scrutiny and ongoing reform, and public debate about their performance is essential.
"However, to dismantle or privatise these institutions would weaken one of the last widely trusted pillars of the Australian media system and one that supports our much-valued democracy."
Wake said a subscription based model for ABC, in the model described by Hanson, would create a two-tiered information environment.
"In which access to credible, independent journalism depends on the ability to pay," she said.
"At a time of rising misinformation and declining trust in media globally, reducing support for the country's most reliable news providers would not only undermine informed citizenship, but erode social cohesion and democratic resilience."
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