Government releases Media Access Report

Minister for Communications, the Hon Stephen Conroy, and Parliamentary Secretary for Disabilities, the Hon Bill Shorten, jointly released the Access to Electronic Media for the Hearing and Vision Impaired Approaches for Consideration Discussion Report 2009 (Media Access Report) at Parliament House, Canberra, this morning.

The Report does not outline specific targets, quotas or regulations, but provides an outline on how the Government is planning to approach the issues of access to electronic media. The Government expects to table a final report with recommendations during 2010.

Both Conroy and Shorten called for disability groups, representatives and other interested people to participate in the process and provide their input.

“This is a step forward and the Report gives us a much clearer view of where the Government’s policy priorities lie,” said MAA CEO, Alex Varley.

“Clearly the Government is viewing this in the context of other media regulation and issues such as the switch off of analog television by 2013 and the National Disability Strategy.  Whilst some will be disappointed that they will have to wait until next year to see clear recommendations, it does give everybody a chance to consider the most up-to-date information and produce a better final outcome.”

The Australian Human Rights Commission, which has been instrumental in improving access in television, cinema and DVD, also welcomed the release of the report. Disability Discrimination Commissioner Graeme Innes said, “There have been many important improvements over the past few years, but there are many areas where we clearly do not yet do as well as we should. I look forward to the Minister finalising this investigation and moving on to the next stage of mapping out real progress.”

Summary of the key proposed approaches by Government:

·         Government considering an overall review of captioning and audio description on electronic media in 2013.

·         Government considering bringing all captioning targets under the Broadcasting Services Act (BSA).

·         Government considering amending the BSA to include captioning targets for subscription television broadcasters by end 2014.

·         Government is considering conducting a technical trial of audio description on the ABC prior to digital switchover (2013).

·         Government will review the captioning rules applying to multichannels.

·         Government will facilitate caption quality standards being covered by voluntary guidelines or the development of a code of practice for television before digital switchover (2013).

·         Cinema will be included in the overall review in 2013.

·         Government is considering a consultation process with stakeholders regarding DVDs to include captions and audio description as part of a voluntary industry standard, including labelling. 

·         Government will consider further regulatory measures if availability of captions and audio description on DVDs does not improve by the end of 2012.

·         Government will continue to monitor international developments in accessible Internet content and encourage industry to partner with disability groups to improve online content accessibility by the end of 2013.

·         Government will consider mandating captioning and voiceover of emergency announcements.

·         Government will consider discussing strengthening requirements for captioning television commercials with industry.

The Government is seeking submissions from interested parties and these submissions are due by 29 January 2010.

Media Access Australia will provide more detailed notes on the report on its website in the coming days and is happy to assist any organisations or individuals with information about: levels of media access in Australia and overseas, production techniques, technology issues and costs of access options.