Nine-Fairfax merger gets green light from ACCC

FORMER prime minister Paul Keating has labelled an ACCC decision to approve the merger of Nine and Fairfax as “appalling” and “simplistic nonsense”.

AN ACCC decision not to oppose the proposed merger between Nine Entertainment and Fairfax Media has been branded ‘appalling’ and ‘naive’ by former prime minister Paul Keating.

The Australian reports Mr Keating as saying the decision does not comprehend the nature and influence of print journalism.

“The defeat of the cross media laws by Malcolm Turnbull and his government, left the forme

r legislative protection of print to the ACCC,” Mr Keating said.

“The ACCC has today displayed its intellectual and policy weakness by consigning The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and The Australian Financial Review to the ethical dustbin of Channel 9.”

Paul Keating has slammed the Nine-Fairfax merger.

“The ACCC’s naive waffle in its media statement today that ‘Nine’s television operations and Fairfax’s main media assets do not compete closely with each other’, shows a complete misunderstanding of the role of capital city print journalism in shaping the media debate in television and print on a daily basis.”

The merger between Nine and Fairfax has been given the green light. Picture: Getty Images

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission says it examined more than 1000 submissions as well as documents it demanded from Nine and Fairfax before giving the merger the green light.

“We concluded that the proposed merger was not likely to substantially lessen competition in any market in breach of the Competition and Consumer Act,” ACCC chair Rod Sims said.

Mr Keating led the creation of the cross-media laws as Treasurer in the 1980s.

Media union the Media Entertainment & Arts Alliance said the ACCC’s decision is a “body-blow to media diversity”. It warned to expect more mergers that will cut news coverage and jobs.

“Given the ACCC’s failure to take the concerns raised by MEAA and the public into account, we will be making a robust case to the new owners of Fairfax to sign a new charter of editorial independence, guarantee there will be no closures of newsrooms or titles, especially in regional areas, and maintain existing wages, entitlements and employment conditions,” MEAA CEO Paul Murphy said.