Time to pay the price
SOCIAL media and online search engines have changed our world. There is no doubt about it. Facebook and Instagram have put us in touch with neighbours and friends, bringing reassurance and joy that have proven especially important during COVID-19 lockdowns. Google has given us access to information with an ease with which previous generations could only dream. But these new media giants have been living in a fantasy world where they do not pay for the news gathered, assessed, analysed and presented by professional journalists.
It’s time Facebook and Google joined the real world, in which valuable information is collected by journalists, who wear out shoe leather as they connect with the public, often putting themselves at risk.
Journalists throw light on the shady wheeling and dealing in the corridors of power of parliaments and expose what’s going on in obscure committees and coteries in back rooms, hidden from plain view.
Journalists celebrate and mourn the struggles and triumphs of ordinary people leading their daily lives — people like you and me, who the decision-makers need to know about in order to properly serve.
Journalism costs. It costs time, money and resources. Quality journalism comes with experience and training, and these things cost too. For far too long Google and Facebook have pretended this is not the case — that news is done by magic and just appears for free for them to circulate and profit from.
And it’s been going on too long. No technology company should profit from news generated by others without paying a fair price for its use.
Facebook’s threat to ban news from its platform in Australia to avoid paying for journalism was rightly labelled “ill-timed and misconceived” by the competition watchdog. The proposed rules simply require Facebook and Google to compensate media outlets for use of their content. Fair enough too.
Australian Competition and Consumer Commission chairman Rod Sims said the draft code aimed to ensure “Australian news businesses, including independent, community and regional media, can get a seat at the table for fair negotiations with Facebook and Google. Facebook already pays some media for news content. The code simply aims to bring fairness and transparency to Facebook and Google’s relationships with Australian news media businesses.”
The move would set a worldwide precedent, one federal Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said would establish a “more level playing field”. Mr Frydenberg is holding firm in the face of the threats. “Australia makes laws that advance our national interest. We don’t respond to coercion or heavy-handed threats wherever they come from,” he said. “These reforms will help to create a more sustainable media landscape and see payment for original content.”
As Dr Claire Konkes, Head of Media at the University of Tasmania, wrote in Talking Point on April 30, “For more than a decade, social media and other platforms have rehashed news and other journalism without charge … it is long past the time to ask them to pay for the work they use.”
A fair deal will help the Mercury continue to deliver to readers high-quality, reliable news.
NO TECHNOLOGY COMPANY SHOULD PROFIT FROM NEWS GENERATED BY OTHERS WITHOUT PAYING A FAIR PRICE FOR ITS USE
Responsibility for all editorial comment is taken by the Editor, Jenna Cairney, Level 1, 2 Salamanca Square, Hobart, TAS, 7000