Fed Court confirms ACMA’s powers

Another small victory for ACMA in the last few days with the Federal Court confirming its powers to investigate a couple of broadcasts by Alan Jones.

This follows on from SCA losing its case against the regulator last month. The latest finding cements ACMA’s ability to go beyond just investigating the Broadcasting Act or the Code of Practice. With Commercial Radio Australia CEO Joan Warner at that time saying: “It means that the ACMA can now act as police, judge and jury.”

With this week’s findings, Justice Buchanan confirmed that the ACMA has “an independent discretion to commence investigations under section 170 of the Broadcasting Services Act 1992”.

Chris Chapman, ACMA Chairman said: “‘The Court’s decision confirms that the ACMA has a broad power to investigate licensees’ compliance with broadcasting rules. The decision also allows for the result that technical deficiencies in the way complaints are made will not necessarily prevent the ACMA from assessing licensees’ compliance with important rules, including rules about accuracy, where it is in the public interest to do so.”

You can read more about the findings and a backgrounder of what it means for 2GB at the ACMA website here.