No new rules about news

Three years ago, it looked like the news and current affairs rules in the commercial TV code of practice were about to be overhauled. At the end of last month, the reform process fell in a heap, with the ACMA announcing it had rejected a revised code presented by the sector’s peak body.

It seems alcohol spiked the code – or at least, the prospect of more alcohol ads in the TV schedule led to a rejection of the whole revised code including any changes that apply to news and current affairs. The Commercial Television Industry Code of Practice is probably the most important of the broadcasting codes registered under the Broadcasting Services Act. The apparent collapse of the code revision process might raise questions over the effectiveness of the co-regulatory system itself, not just the content of that code. Let’s trace it back to see how this exercise in co-regulatory code revision ended like no other.

Back in June 2022 the ACMA issued a position paper for content makers, noting that the current codes of practice were out of date. ACMA set out its views on audience expectations across nine topics, including accuracy and impartiality, and commercial interests – topics we had addressed in our own research for ACMA, two years earlier. Then last year, Free TV (the peak body representing commercial broadcasters) released a draft version of the new code before it went to public consultation.

ACMA published a statement of its own views on that draft, and there did seem to be a gulf between what it wanted and what broadcasters had offered. Among other things, ACMA wanted the sector to strengthen the provisions on warnings about distressing material; to extend to current affairs the rule about distinguishing factual material and commentary in news programs; and to consider introducing a provision about checking the veracity of online information. It also wanted to see changes to the privacy provisions and an extension of the requirements relating to disclosure of commercial arrangements that can affect editorial content. This is apart from its request – and this is a story for another day – that the broadcasters voluntarily extend these rules to their online services like 9Now.

In the end, the draft code had very little of what ACMA wanted. It did include a strengthening of the rule applying to factual accuracy in news and current affairs programs, so that instead of a broadcaster just being required to ‘make reasonable efforts’ to correct errors ‘in a timely manner’, they would have been required to act ‘as soon as practicable’ and without the protection of ‘reasonable efforts’. The offer didn’t extend to committing broadcasters to make corrections on-air rather than via a website.

So the draft code almost totally failed to address ACMA’s concerns on these issues. While it’s not clear how the code might have changed by the time it was presented to ACMA by Free TV in March this year, it seems the news rules didn’t figure in ACMA’s decision to reject it. Other points mentioned in ACMA’s statement are those over which it has no actual powers (extending the code to online content) or those in which  government is separately involved (gambling ads). So it appears the knockback was all about alcohol. This is because the code would have extended the M time zone during the day in place of the more restrictive environment when only PG, G or C classified programs can be shown. ACMA said it ‘is not satisfied that the revised code would provide appropriate community safeguards’, with this decision attracting support from some in the community sector, including the Foundation for Alcohol Research and Education (FARE), the Australian Research Alliance for Children and Youth (ARACY) and Children and Media Australia, who issued a joint media release.

The reference to ‘appropriate community safeguards’ is interesting because that’s really the only significant mechanism ACMA has for rejecting a code and it was ACMA’s understanding of community expectations about those nine topics including accuracy and fairness and disclosure of commercial arrangements that led it to issue its 2022 paper calling for change.

This is not easy territory to navigate, especially since the commercial broadcasters have been under such commercial pressure from loss of advertising revenue and declining audiences. And ACMA’s rejection of the Free TV code is itself somewhat historic, showing a marked difference from past practice and perhaps marking a change in how it regards its role in the co-regulatory landscape.

More on that in a future newsletter. For now, there’s a question over where all this ends. ACMA based its decision to reject the commercial TV code on emerging evidence concerning harm to children and said it would now be ‘commencing a body of work to assess the suitability of alcohol advertising restrictions in the current code, including exemptions for sporting events’. ACMA said that if this work establishes the current code is not providing appropriate community safeguards, it will step in and make a program standard on the matter. That means the old code continues, at least for the present and until ACMA makes its own rules on alcohol ads – or, perhaps, the industry offers a renewed version of the code with new provisions that do address ACMA’s concerns about alcohol ads.

But it might be argued that ACMA’s previously expressed views, supported by its research into community expectations, might lead us to question whether the code is providing ‘appropriate community safeguards’ on the other matters under discussion here, including the news and current affairs rules. It looks like the old news rules just stay put.

References 
Department of Communications paper (Consumer Safeguards Review consultation—Part C: Choice and fairness): https://www.infrastructure.gov.au/have-your-say/consumer-safeguards-review-consultation-part-c-choice-and-fairness 

ACMA’s views on the proposed code: https://www.acma.gov.au/reviewing-industry-codes-practice  

ACMA statement rejecting the code: https://www.acma.gov.au/articles/2025-06/acma-decision-revised-commercial-television-industry-code-practice 

ACMA’s position paper on audience expectations: https://www.acma.gov.au/publications/2022-06/report/what-audiences-want-audience-expectations-content-safeguards  

Community groups’ media release: https://fare.org.au/community-health-and-childrens-organisations-support-decision-to-reject-new-commercial-tv-industry-code/  

CMT News in Australia research papers: https://www.uts.edu.au/research/centres/centre-media-transition/projects-and-research/attitudes-news-consumers