Country publishers cry foul over teal-backed news

‘The revelation that Gazette News online publications are funded by top teal donors damages the reputation of independent regional, rural and local mastheads,’ says Andrew Schreyer, president of the Country Press Association.

Australia’s Country Press ­Association has supported calls for the Australian Electoral Commission to review a number of online publications allegedly funded by Climate 200 ­supporters.

Australia’s Country Press ­Association has supported calls for the Australian Electoral Commission to review a number of online publications allegedly funded by Climate 200 ­supporters.

The move comes after the Coalition last week called for an investigation into possible links between regional titles published under the umbrella of Gazette News and funding for a number of teal candidates at the upcoming federal election.

Gazette News publishes news on individual websites and on social media under five separate mastheads.

The titles at present are The Eastern Melburnian, The North Shore Lorikeet, The Mid North Coaster, The Gippsland Monitor and The West Vic Brolga.

CPA president Andrew Schreyer issued a statement on Friday, noting that the three major funders of Gazette News have also donated more than $1.7m to environmental lobby group Climate 200 and associated candidates, according to AEC disclosures.

“The revelation that Gazette News online publications are funded by top teal donors damages the reputation of independent regional, rural and local mastheads,” he said.

“The AEC has an excellent record of strictly monitoring and regulating political advertising, but now there is a new threat where fake ‘news’ sites can become a loophole for political advertising donations to be redirected to fund ‘journalism’ that mainly produces political propaganda.”

In addition to heading the association of 240 regional publications in all states of Australia, Mr Schreyer owns the Warragul and Drouin Gazette.

“It’s all too easy now to set up a ‘news’ website that publishes political propaganda dressed up as journalism and amplified through social media campaigns. Such sites are a threat to the integrity of our political advertising regulations and to the public trust in truly independent news publishers who are reporting objectively and holding the powerful to account,” he said.