How are the following for basic principles that should be the foundation for how news and currrent affairs media is undertaken/reguated:
1. Media consumers should have "true to label" confidence in the media they consume
2. Media program labels should ideally be descriptive (eg news, current affairs/news analysis, current affairs forum/talkback) but could alternately be level based (1,2,3 etc)
3. Criteria associated with labels should be specific, clear and pragmatic:
a. All
i. Clear separation of material from advertiser/sponsor messages
ii. Editorial independence from all advertiser/sponsor influence
iii. Video, audio and other media recordings utilised are time and date stamped at time of recording
b. News
i. Factual presentation of current news items within balanced context that provides meaning for the facts
ii. News producer filters potential news items according to importance assessed against either pre-specified factors or, if no such factors specified, against general Australian population interest
iii. News items time and date stamped at the time of editorial completion
c. Current affairs/news analysis
i. Any presenter/commentator conflict of interest explicitly identified
ii. Any presenter/commentator relevant affiliations and/or previous published viewpoints explicitly identified
iii. Clear and balanced presentation of context of the current affair/news item being discussed/analysed
iv. Research information gathered and further references available on website with URL explicitly identified
d. Current affairs/discussion (eg talk-back radio, panels open to public application etc)
i. As per current affairs/news analysis
ii. Approach to selecting/filtering discussants/contributors from the public explicitly identified
4. Media providers should have published and open processes to ensure compliance and report breaches
You can also read about the current Australian controls over news and current affairs media.
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