The Sydney Morning Herald About-face as radio link to Asia gets $9m Date: 09/08/2000 By MICHELLE GRATTAN, Chief Political Correspondent Driven by regional instability, especially in Indonesia, the Howard Government has reversed its decision to shrink Radio Australia drastically, announcing yesterday an injection of $9 million over three years. Cabinet also decided to seek proposals to continue a television service to the Asia-Pacific, after the Seven Network said it was considering the future of its struggling Australia Television. The Government will put a large but unspecified amount into the service, for which the ABC will be one bidder. Radio Australia was slashed after the Mansfield Report into the ABC said the ABC should concentrate on local broadcasting. The ABC saw Radio Australia as one avenue for making savings the Government had required. The Foreign Minister, Mr Downer, and the Communications Minister, Senator Alston, pointed to recent regional problems as the driving force in the Government's somersault. "Recent events have highlighted the value of Australia's international broadcasting activities in conveying accurate news and information to the region, as well as providing an Australian perspective," they said. In the latest regional controversy, the former Malaysian deputy prime minister, Anwar Ibrahim, was jailed yesterday for nine years on sodomy charges, a move that attracted widespread international condemnation. ABC sources said Radio Australia now broadcasts about 3 hours a day to Indonesia in the national language. The extra money would enable up to an extra five hours a day. The ABC may seek to lease some time on the Cox Peninsula transmitters near Darwin which the Government recently sold to a Christian broadcasting group. The chairman of the ABC, Mr Donald McDonald, said last night the ABC would "now examine its transmission options, including Cox Peninsula". He said the extra money would allow a "significant" strengthening of Radio Australia broadcasts to Asia. Mr Downer and Senator Alston made it clear the television service the Government will back must be much better than now being offered, following the dropping of some of the higher quality programs. Seven acquired the service from the ABC, which could no longer afford to run it. This material is subject to copyright and any unauthorised use, copying or mirroring is prohibited. -- ********************************** 'Click' to protect the rainforest: Make the Rainforest Site your homepage! http://www.therainforestsite.com/ ********************************** ------------------------------------------------------ RecOzNet2 has a page @ http://www.green.net.au/recoznet2 and is archived at http://www.mail-archive.com/ To unsubscribe from this list, mail [EMAIL PROTECTED], and in the body of the message, include the words: unsubscribe announce or click here mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20announce This posting is provided to the individual members of this group without permission from the copyright owner for purposes of criticism, comment, scholarship and research under the "fair use" provisions of the Federal copyright laws and it may not be distributed further without permission of the copyright owner, except for "fair use." RecOzNet2 is archived for members @ http://www.mail-archive.com/recoznet2%40paradigm4.com.au/
