AUSTRALIA: Boost urged for radio Australia

AUSTRALIA: Boost urged for radio Australia

A parliamentary inquiry into Australia's relationship with Indonesia is urging increased funding for the ABC's Radio Australia so it can resume high levels of programming into Indonesia

Pacific Media Watch
Saturday, June 12, 2004

By Sheena MacLean

SYDNEY (The Australian/Pacific Media Watch): A parliamentary inquiry into Australia's relationship with Indonesia is urging increased funding for the ABC's Radio Australia so it can resume high levels of programming into Indonesia.

The move comes seven years after federal budget cuts resulted in the controversial closure of Australia's short-wave transmitters near Darwin, forcing Radio Australia to stop broadcasts into Indonesia and downgrade coverage into other parts of Asia.

The transmitters were later sold and the site leased to a not-for-profit Christian evangelical broadcaster based near Maroochydore in Queensland, Voice International, which broadcasts in English, Bahasa Indonesia and Mandarin with a potential audience reach of three billion.

The report of the inquiry, by the Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs Defence and Trade, was tabled on May 31. It says that Radio Australia "is an extremely powerful and relatively cost-effective" means of reaching into Indonesia and promoting greater understanding of Australia.

It recommends that the ABC's international radio and online service dramatically increase its programming, restoring it to the previous high levels of the 1970s and '80s.

It recommends the Australian Broadcasting Authority examine the cost and feasibility of Radio Australia using spare short-wave capacity so it can broadcast into Indonesia on multiple frequencies.

The head of Radio Australia, Jean-Gabriel Manguy, says he welcomes the report's strong endorsement.

"It is crucial for us to broadcast in Indonesian to Indonesia because we reach great numbers of people and we are in a position to affect perceptions of Australia."  Two years ago Jakarta introduced new laws that stop local relays of international broadcasts and while this law has not been enforced, a swing in the political climate in next month's Indonesian elections could make Radio Australia's position more pressing.

Thousands of radio stations in Indonesia are defying the law. Radio Australia has 38 partners in Indonesia and the BBC and Voice of America both have more than 100-plus stations that relay their broadcasts. Should the law be imposed and local relays come under political pressure to stop or curtail broadcasts, short wave provides an independent means of reaching
listeners.

Radio Australia resumed limited broadcasting into Indonesia in 2000 and presently broadcasts 10 hours of programs a day, leasing air time from Voice International. Before the Cox Peninsula transmitters were mothballed, it was broadcasting 96 hours of programs (via a number of transmitters).

Finding spare transmission capacity is not a problem. While there are a number of possible providers, including in Taiwan, Singapore and North America, the Asia Australia director for Voice International, Mike Edmiston, says his organisation has the capacity and can offer competitive international rates to RA.

Voice International has 10 studios and is thought to be the second-largest radio set-up in the country. It is receiving between 6500 and 7000 responses a month from listeners in Asia, about half of which come from Indonesia.

Manguy says Radio Australia sends 26 live daily satellite relays of news and current affairs into Indonesia as well as programs on health, development and education. It would like to engage with younger audiences through interactive programming.

In the 1970s and '80s, its Indonesian audience was estimated at 20 million and is now down to about 5.4 million. "Our audience figures are lower now than they were but you have to take into account that between 1997 and 2000 we had no transmission whatsoever," says Manguy.

"We were a radio station that was not broadcasting, we were sending programs on videos and so on.

"What's important for us, because we have stiff competition from the British and Americans in Indonesia, is that we need a presence on the ground, we need a face. These organisations are pouring millions and millions of dollars into broadcasting in Indonesia." Voice of America has live telephone talkback between Washington and Jakarta, as well as on TV.

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Date Posted: 6/12/2004