New commercial radio code of practice to launch on March 15
The radio industry will be held to account by a new Commercial Industry Code of Practice which comes into force on March 15.
The code, registered by the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA), regulates the content of commercial radio and aims to ensure broadcasts meet community standards and attitudes while protecting the right of freedom of speech.
CRA chief executive officer Joan Warner said the new code had been developed following an extensive review and consultation process.
“The code has been updated to reflect changes in the modern media environment and to provide clear guidance to radio stations and listeners on what is required in each of the areas covered by the code,” she said.
“These include taste and decency, accuracy and impartiality in news, broadcast of Australian music, procedures for complaints handling and the broadcast of information in times of emergency.
“We have streamlined the code to remove duplication and where possible, we have made it consistent with comparable industries such as television. Radio remains one of the most highly regulated forms of media in Australia.”
The new code includes:
- rules about the broadcast of certain material which may be offensive or may distress listeners;
- requirements for news programs to be presented accurately and impartially and not create public panic or cause serious distress
- requirements for current affairs programs to distinguish factual material from commentary and analysis as well as ensure that factual material broadcast is reasonably supportable as being accurate
- correction obligations if material facts are inaccurate
- privacy requirements, including that material relating to a person’s personal or private affairs or which invades a person’s privacy, must not be broadcast unless it is in the public interest to do so, or the person has provided consent for the material to be broadcast
- advertisements must be identifiable to audiences as advertising material at the time of broadcast
- Australian music quotas
- rules about the broadcast of the words of an identifiable person in interviews and talkback programs, to ensure the person has been appropriately informed or provided consent
- rules on live hosted entertainment programs to protect participants and to ensure licensees do not broadcast programs which treat participants in a highly demeaning or highly exploitative manner
- restrictions on gambling advertisements (including the promotion of betting odds) during the broadcast of live sporting events.
- clear complaint handling procedures.
The updated code contains no change to the amount of advertising on commercial radio and retains the high levels of community safeguards in relation to the protection of children, privacy and the broadcast of offensive content.
It is part of the government’s co-regulatory regime for the commercial radio broadcasting sector.
Warner said the industry will now write to the ACMA requesting a review of the Disclosure Standard with the aim of converting the standard to a code.
The code would still require licensees that broadcast current affairs and talkback programs to disclose commercial agreements.
She said there had been a high level of compliance with the existing Disclosure Standard with no breaches over the past seven years. Radio is the only industry in the modern media and communications landscape that has such a standard.
The release of the code comes alongside new guidelines on the responsible reporting of domestic violence.
Published by the CRA, the guidelines are based on those developed by Our Watch, a national organisation working to prevent domestic violence.
The new guidelines provides best practice when broadcasting domestic violence issues, including language use, protecting the survivor’s identity and the inclusion of information about support options for people who have experienced domestic violence.
Miranda Ward worked for Mumbrella from 2013 to 2017, eventually becoming deputy editor. Miranda joined Mumbrella in September 2013 from Sky News.
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