ABC Board must muscle up on editorial: ex-chief Shier

FORMER ABC managing director Jonathan Shier says the Sydney-centric ABC needs an overhaul of its board and editorial processes.

Former ABC boss Jonathan Shier.

FORMER ABC managing director Jonathan Shier says the Sydney-centric ABC needs an overhaul of its board and editorial processes and agrees the position of managing director and editor-in-chief should be split.

In his first interview for almost a decade, Mr Shier said, from his home in Melbourne, that he has been quietly watching the ABC and the Abbott government argue publicly over budget cuts, and said Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull was “entirely correct” to argue board members must genuinely accept responsibility for editorial control at the ABC.

“There have been some notable exceptions but on the whole the board’s readiness to get involved in editorial content is less than I believe is optimum,’’ he said.

“Without a doubt some members of the board could be accused of holding a sinecure. In the period I’ve been watching the attitude of laissez faire has to be the dominant one.”

Mr Shier said he had no doubt the directors had upheld their duty to oversee monthly reports and the organisation’s ­finances and operations, but “in terms of overseeing editorial there would have to be a significant number who have been pretty passive”.

“The ABC board’s inexperience in media, journalism and the broadcasting industry, and in areas such as production, is a fundamental problem,’’ he said.

“If the board doesn’t understand the business issues of broadcasting, such as the cost between in-house production and outsourcing and acquisition costs, and they don’t actually perform an editorial function, what function do they provide?”

Mr Shier resigned from the ABC at the end of 2001 after irreconcilable differences with chairman Donald McDonald.

His period as managing director was turbulent, as he attempted to reform the public broadcaster and inject balance and editorial sophistication. Since his resignation, Mr Shier, 67, has kept a low profile. He spends four months of the year overseas, often in London where he has an apartment.. He has settled in Melbourne, with his son boarding at his old school in Geelong, and on a week night he often finds himself more frequently turning to SBS for news rather than just the ABC. “The idea originally when I got to the ABC was it should be one-third local, one-third regional and one-third international,’’ he said. “Some nights I watch the news and I just think, did nothing happen in the rest of the world during the last 24 hours? I have to say that I get a lot of pleasure out of watching SBS news ­because I do like a world perspective.”

Mr Shier agrees with Mr Turnbull that the role of managing ­director and editor-in-chief should be split, with both individuals on the board. He said it was a full-time role to oversee editorial content at the ABC. The ABC’s main point of difference from the all-to-often “puerile” commercial television networks was that it provided the space to discuss the great issues of the day — and this should be overseen by a full-time ABC editor-in-chief.

“You need someone to ask the question, what issues should a public broadcaster be raising to satisfy the corporation’s obligation to educate and inform, then ensure the issues are ­approached in a balanced way,” he said. “Otherwise it simply becomes programming by in-tray, programming that is chosen because someone has made a quotable quote or there’s a convenient piece of video footage that can be used rather than a serious analysis of what issues need to be discussed and are not being discussed.”

Like many, Mr Shier has found the content on the ABC is too Sydney-centric when the organisation is meant to service local towns and big cities alike.

“In my day I was wanting there to be production in Hobart and now they’re talking about stopping production in South Australia so someone has to be overseeing, and I hate the word — the wider ‘Australianness’ of the corporation,’’ Mr Shier said. “When I travel around Australia I can see just how Sydney-centric the ABC has become.”

A full-time editor-in-chief was needed to improve and oversee the ABC’s topic-selection and the tone of the editorial content.

Mr Shier created Insiders, with the brief that it was to showcase broad perspectives and different political points of view. Watching it now, he is still proud of his creation but slightly disappointed at how the show has evolved.

“What does annoy me is when you get provocative commentators from one side of politics or the other who seem to have been selected mainly because they perform a token function of representing a certain point of view. It would be better to get people who may be perceived as coming from a certain side of the political spectrum but who are not so predictable and their comments are viewed for what they are — valid comments,” he said.

He did not buy into the argument about the ABC being too left-wing. Rather, he said, an editor-in-chief should ensure the ABC chooses stories that address, in a balanced way, “the issues the nation needs to talk about”.

As an example, Mr Shier questioned how many times the ABC has had an in-depth look at superannuation reform and how the elderly in future will be able to survive on insufficient pensions.

“At the risk of being somewhat cheeky, that subject doesn’t readily come to mind to some staff at the ABC who are on a guaranteed commonwealth government pension for life,’’ he said.

“There are numerous examples where those who are choosing the topics are not sufficiently focused on what the people in the broader community might be interested in.”

While he agrees with Mr Turnbull that the role of managing director and editor-in-chief should be split, he said this would make no difference unless first the problem of how active and attentive the board are editorially is addressed.

When he reflected on his time at the ABC, Mr Shier said he did so with no bitterness — except perhaps in relation to a couple of individuals.

“My departure from the ABC was very political, and I have moved on from that, but I still have the same views I had when I joined and seeking to improve efficiency and to ensure better editorial discipline is in no way inconsistent with a belief in public service broadcasting.

“In fact, it can only support the ongoing relevance and effectiveness of the likes of the ABC and SBS,” he said.

“Australia would be a much poorer place without an effective public service broadcaster adding to the richness of our lives. Quality, intellectually stimulating media is so important, without it I can only envisage an increase in the number of Australians who might choose to live elsewhere.”