Fed: Media complaints commission not needed

AAP General News (Australia)
04-14-2000
Fed: Media complaints commission not needed

A government plan to give people more power to raise complaints against the media has
been attacked as a blight on free speech and editorial independence.

A Senate committee has recommended setting up a Media Complaints Commission as a one-stop
shop for media gripes.

But Australian Press Council chairman DENNIS PEARCE has accused the committee of trying
to control the media.

He says criticism of the council, an industry-funded body which hears complaints against
print media, is unfounded.

The Communications Law Centre has praised the attempt to streamline complaints.

But the law centre says an authority set up to help consumers could hardly hear a case
impartially.

Labor and Australian Democrats members of the Senate Select Committee on Information
Technology filed a dissenting report, saying the complaints commission is not needed.

AAP RTV kmh/mfh/msk/jn/gmw/smf

KEYWORD: COMPLAINTS (CANBERRA)

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