{"id":51646,"date":"2019-11-04T06:00:23","date_gmt":"2019-11-03T19:00:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/?p=51646"},"modified":"2019-11-03T17:58:42","modified_gmt":"2019-11-03T06:58:42","slug":"whispering-to-the-asia-pacific","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/whispering-to-the-asia-pacific\/","title":{"rendered":"Whispering to the Asia\u2013Pacific"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-51648\" src=\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/4950662934_6255c8db88_c.jpg\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/4950662934_6255c8db88_c.jpg 800w, https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/4950662934_6255c8db88_c-205x154.jpg 205w, https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/4950662934_6255c8db88_c-768x576.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/><\/figure>\n<p>Australia gropes and stutters towards a renewed embrace of international broadcasting\u2014the vital need to <a href=\"https:\/\/about.abc.net.au\/press-releases\/abc-radio-australia-celebrates-70-years-broadcasting\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u2018speak for ourselves\u2019<\/a> in the Asia\u2013Pacific.<\/p>\n<p>The latest lurch towards fresh understanding is the silent release of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.communications.gov.au\/have-your-say\/review-australian-broadcasting-services-asia-pacific\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">review of Australia\u2019s media reach in the Asia\u2013Pacific<\/a>. Note the irony that a report on broadcasting is soundless on arrival.<\/p>\n<p>Behold a classic <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/hello-21st-century-australia-calling\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">orphan inquiry<\/a>, not wanted by either the government or the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, nor particularly desired by the public service. The orphan was created as part of the price to win a Senate vote, and is dumped on the public doorstep without a word of welcome.<\/p>\n<p>The review was completed last December but only released (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.communications.gov.au\/documents\/review-australian-broadcasting-services-asia-pacific\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">published on the Department of Communications website<\/a>) on 17 October. No announcement. No government decisions.<\/p>\n<p>The inquiry matters because it nods towards significant policy failure and the absent-minded trashing of Oz international broadcasting.<\/p>\n<p>The answers offered are hesitant, sometimes implicit. The report is useful for what it does and doesn\u2019t say. The tough stuff is often dealt with by quoting from the 433 submissions. Thus, see the key themes highlighted from submissions as implicit findings or recommendations:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Media markets across the Asia\u2013Pacific exhibit significant variation and a \u2018highly competitive nature\u2019. Dramatically changing historical patterns of media usage requires \u2018narrowcasting\u2019 that tailors content and distribution platforms to target audiences in each country.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Successive budget cutbacks have \u2018caused reductions in Australia\u2019s supplies of international broadcasting services, particularly to the Pacific\u2019. International services should be revitalised, including the use of \u2018alternative models for delivery and governance of Australian government funded international broadcasting services\u2019.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u2018The majority of submissions, which focused on the Pacific, advocated the restoration of ABC\u2019s shortwave services in the Pacific region.\u2019<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Submissions in favour of restoring shortwave services \u2018disputed the views that the technology has \u201climited and diminishing audiences\u201d and disproportionately high costs\u2019.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The inquiry doesn\u2019t advocate restoring shortwave, but nor does it endorse the ABC dumbness. Instead, it offers this:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>In the absence of a clear statement of the objectives of Australia\u2019s Asia Pacific broadcasts \u2026 and a clear articulation of the full range of alternative options for achieving those objectives, it is not possible to determine whether Australia would derive a net benefit from resuming its shortwave broadcasts to the Asia Pacific.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>You might have thought the combined forces of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and the Department of Communications could have reached towards a clear statement of objectives and a full range of options. But that\u2019d be to misunderstand the lonely nature of the orphan inquiry and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/report\/hard-news-and-free-media\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Canberra\u2019s sins of omission and commission on international broadcasting. <\/a><\/p>\n<p>The decade of vandalism forces the review back to first principles: Australia must identify its \u2018strategic policy objectives\u2019 and clarify \u2018the role that publicly funded broadcasts should play in achieving those objectives\u2019.<\/p>\n<p>Canberra has lost its way on policy when the key recommendation of a government review is that the government must first define what it wants to do. It is still groping and stuttering towards \u2018clarifying the objectives of Australia\u2019s broadcasting to audiences in Asia and the Pacific\u2019.<\/p>\n<p>The new chair of the ABC, Ita Buttrose, a fine editor and journalist, knows that much international ground needs to be retaken. Her <a href=\"http:\/\/www.lowyinstitute.org\/publications\/2019-lowy-institute-media-lecture\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">2019 Lowy Institute media lecture<\/a> was notable for notes of loss and regret.<\/p>\n<p>The ABC continues to produce content in languages other than English, she said, \u2018but regrettably, not at the same levels as we have been able to in the past\u2019, and the ABC\u2019s \u2018commitments to international broadcasting are not what they once were\u2019.<\/p>\n<p>A great Oz rock group long ago paid tribute to Buttrose with a song titled <a href=\"http:\/\/www.coldchisel.com\/ita\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u2018Ita\u2019<\/a>, with the closing line: \u2018How could I not believe, when Ita tells me too\u2019.<\/p>\n<p>And what Ita says on international broadcasting is this:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Australia\u2019s relationship with our neighbours is more nuanced than ever, and so, naturally, must be our conversations. This type of engagement requires a high degree of expertise, investment, infrastructure, and above all commitment.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Commitment and cash have both ebbed and the conversation has suffered. It\u2019s a sad commentary as the ABC prepares to celebrate next month the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/oz-voice-in-the-asia-pacific-part-1-speak-for-ourselves\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">80th anniversary<\/a> of the creation of Radio Australia (the outbreak of World War II was something of a prompt).<\/p>\n<p>The orphan inquiry tells the story of what has to be rebuilt. The bureaucratic baton is handed to the DFAT <a href=\"https:\/\/dfat.gov.au\/people-to-people\/soft-power-review\/Pages\/soft-power-review.aspx\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">soft power review<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>A government facing tougher international times must discover a new vision of international broadcasting to communicate Australia\u2019s interests, influence and values.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Australia gropes and stutters towards a renewed embrace of international broadcasting\u2014the vital need to \u2018speak for ourselves\u2019 in the Asia\u2013Pacific. The latest lurch towards fresh understanding is the silent release of the review of Australia\u2019s &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":79,"featured_media":51648,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[880,143,17,2396,730,526],"class_list":["post-51646","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general","tag-abc","tag-asia-pacific","tag-australia","tag-broadcasting","tag-media","tag-soft-power"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v19.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Whispering to the Asia\u2013Pacific | The Strategist<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/whispering-to-the-asia-pacific\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Whispering to the Asia\u2013Pacific | The Strategist\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Australia gropes and stutters towards a renewed embrace of international broadcasting\u2014the vital need to \u2018speak for ourselves\u2019 in the Asia\u2013Pacific. 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