Assistant Treasurer Stephen Jones and Communications Minister Michelle Rowland have been leading the government’s work on a new model to fund journalism.Credit:Ben Symons
Labor sources,unable to talk publicly about government decisions that were not yet finalised,said the influential report would inform its thinking on a potential levy on social media firms that would,in part,help fund journalism.
This mastheadrevealed in August that Labor was considering a levy on tech companies,dramatically escalating the government’s stoush with the global giants that includes clampdowns on misinformation,child abuse material,addictive algorithms and copyright.
If a levy were pursued,the report said a new mechanism should be created to disperse the funds to needy media businesses,including those operating in regional areas.
In the inquiry’s final report,Coalition members split and labelled Labor “weak” for failing to force Meta,the owner of Facebook and Instagram,to renew deals with media businesses. Those deals were forced upon the platform by theMorrison government’s threat to enforce the code.
Loading
Large media companies such as Nine Entertainment – which owns this masthead – and News Corp are pressuring the government to use the arbitration mechanism within the existing code. But this masthead has previously reported that Meta has threatened to cut out all news from Australian users’ feeds if the government does so.
Decisions on the news deals are expected within weeks and a spokeswoman for Assistant Treasurer Stephen Jones confirmed the Coalition-era code was,in its view,not fit for purpose,potentially creating a fight with big media firms ahead of the election.