Government's grab for media control termed a threat to open media

COMMUNICATIONS Minister Stephen Conroy has denied his media law changes are an attack on the freedom of the press, as MPs and media organisations line up against the plan.

Communications Minister Stephen Conroy denies his media law changes are an attack on the freedom of the press, as MPs and media organisations line up against the plan.

Senator Conroy says he won't be "bartering" on the details of the plan to get it through parliament by his deadline of Thursday week, even though the specific details of the legislation have yet to be made public.

The planned measures - to be introduced to parliament on Thursday - include a public interest test on media mergers, to be overseen by a government-appointed bureaucrat.

The public interest media advocate would also ensure the self-regulatory body that handles complaints about the print and online media does its job properly.

The minister was compared to despots Joseph Stalin, Chairman Mao and Fidel Castro in News Limited's Daily Telegraph newspaper on Wednesday.

However, Senator Conroy said the media advocate would not have the power to restrict freedom of the press.

"That's just not the case at all," he told ABC radio on Wednesday when asked whether it amounted to government regulation of the press.

He rejected claims by News Limited boss Kim Williams that the changes amounted to the biggest attack on freedom of speech since World War II by introducing government-sanctioned journalism.

Senator Conroy said the changes - which stemmed from two media reviews in the past 18 months - had been widely debated and not rushed.

Liberal frontbencher Eric Abetz said it was not good public policy to restrict freedom of the press.

"That is clearly what is on the government agenda," he said.

"To top it all off they want to ram it and force it through the parliament."

Nationals Senate leader Barnaby Joyce described Senator Conroy's plan as "quite bizarre".

Labor senator Doug Cameron described the plan as "modest", adding that the response from News Limited and the opposition had been "hysterical".

"I don't think News Limited exercises its responsibilities well at all," he told ABC television.

"If you've got this power and influence you should not desecrate the democracy you are involved in."

Independent senator Nick Xenophon says he believed the measures won't go anywhere even though some, such as a cut in licence broadcast licence fees, have merit.

Australian Greens deputy leader Adam Bandt, whose vote will be crucial in the lower house, questioned whether the government was serious about its legislation passing parliament.

"You do wonder if Labor would be happy, if in fact it fell over, and whether that is behind its odd arbitrary deadlines on such an important reform," he told reporters.

Independent MP Craig Thomson said the package was "disappointing" and a long way from the recommendations of the expert media reviews.

Other crossbenchers Rob Oakeshott and Tony Windsor are awaiting the detailed legislation before deciding whether to support it.

Australian Press Council chair Professor Julian Disney said the plan lacked crucial detail.

"We can't meaningfully comment on things or feel we've been meaningfully consulted unless we know the real details," he said, adding the council had already strengthened its independence, improved its resources and got publishers on board.

"If the benchmarks set now don't at least set the bar where we are, then there'll be an erosion of the process that's been widely welcomed and the publishers will say `why did we bother?'," he said.

Mr Williams said yesterday the Government proposals were an attack on freedom of speech.

He singled out the possible changes to privacy laws, a reform that the Government has referred to the Australian Law Reform Commission, as an attempt to "gag the media" and said the public interest test was "nothing more than a political interest test which governments will use to punish outlets they don't like".

"The Public Interest `Tsar' will be beholden to Government and will act as its gatekeeper. It is a sad day for Australian democracy," he said.

The Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance also criticised the public interest test, saying it was a heavy-handed approach that would not protect diversity.

On the potential privacy reforms, it said any law that threatened the media's ability to "report with truth, honesty, balance and fairness would be an assault on media freedom".

Channel 10 boss Hamish McLennan called the public interest test unworkable and unnecessary. Legal academic David Flint said "one of the inevitable corruptions of power is the wish to control information about the exercise of that power".

Several earlier recommendations were not included in yesterday's announcement and will go to committees for further consideration. They include the abolition of the "75 per cent reach rule", which stops television networks from broadcasting to more than 75 per cent of the population, and another controversial proposal for a tort of privacy.

Other reforms that caucus approved yesterday, in response to both the Finkelstein inquiry and the Convergence Review of media, include:

STRONGER self-regulation of print and online media.

NEW, "modernised" charters for the ABC and SBS to take into account their online activities.

SUPPORT for community television services after the digital switchover.

A PERMANENT 50 per cent reduction in the licence fees paid by commercial TV stations as long as they broadcast more local content.

Opposition communications spokesman Malcolm Turnbull said Mr Conroy was trying to control the media because he didn't like what media outlets said about the Government.

"Stephen Conroy is ... responding to his outrage that the newspapers, in particular the News Limited papers, have seen fit to criticise the Government," he said.

Swinburne University of Technology's convenor of journalism Andrew Dodd said he was "not overly perturbed" by the public interest test, but he conceded the details were unclear.

A one-day parliamentary inquiry into the laws will be held on Friday.

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