Milestones
|
Details
|
Document
source
|
1939–45
|
April 1939
Joseph Lyons dies in office.
Earle Page serves as caretaker Prime Minister until the UAP elects Robert
Menzies as leader on 26 April 1939
|
August
1939
|
National security
regulations are introduced. These include regulations to control radio and
cable services. The Department of Information controls news and information.
|
‘National security: the new regulations’, The West Australian, 26 August 1939,
p. 18 and Zwar, op. cit., p. 93.
|
September
1939
World War II begins when
Britain and France declare war on Germany following its invasion of Poland.
|
September
1939
|
After commentary
on the ABC by ‘The Watchman’, which criticises the British policy response to
the invasion of Poland by Germany, the Government directs the broadcaster to
ensure its programs contain only factual observations.
|
‘At home and
abroad’, 21 September 1939 and telephone conversation reported in
memorandum from W Cleary, ABC Chairman, to all Commissioners and the General
Manager, 21 September 1939, as quoted in A Thomas, ‘Political pressure
in the ABC’, in Moran, op. cit., p. 70.
|
November
1939
|
Frank Packer and
EG Theodore launch the Sunday Telegraph in opposition to Denison’s Sunday
Sun and Norton’s Truth.
|
Whitington, op.
cit., p. 146.
|
December
1939
|
Radio Australia
(known as Australia Calling until 1945), commences short-wave broadcasting in
English, French, Dutch and Spanish.
|
Carty, op. cit.,
p. 3.
|
1940
|
Twenty-six
national and 100 commercial radio licences in operation.
|
ABCB, First
Annual Report, op. cit., p. 5.
|
June
1940
|
To prevent Era
Norton from buying the Sydney Labor paper Daily News and converting it
to an evening paper, Consolidated Press buys it and incorporates it into the Daily
Telegraph.
|
Whitington, op.
cit., p. 151.
|
June
1940
|
Keith Murdoch is
appointed Director General of Information by Prime Minister Menzies. Murdoch
is criticised by his peers for supporting proposed media regulation which
they see as a dangerous attack on the press. Murdoch resigns his position
after four months.
|
Chadwick, op.
cit., p. xxiv and Roberts, op. cit., pp. 227–9.
|
September
1940
Coalition at first retains power after the September 1940 election with the
support of two independents, but by October, the independents withdraw their
backing and Labor’s John Curtin becomes Prime Minister.[55]
|
January
1941
|
Four broadcasting
licences—2HD (Newcastle), 4AT (Atherton), 5AK (Adelaide) and 5AU (Port
Augusta)—are withdrawn under national security regulations because of their
supposed association with the Jehovah’s Witnesses religious group which has
been declared illegal under the same regulations.
|
‘Radio stations closed: federal order to four’, The Sydney Morning Herald,
9 January 1941, p. 7 and ‘Banned radio station: licences lost’, The Sydney Morning Herald, 8 February
1941, p. 17.
|
February 1941
|
Under conditions in the National Security Act
passed in 1939, controls are imposed on newspaper production and importation
of newsprint. This reduces the amount of paper allowed for production by 35
per cent. Newsprint rationing comes into effect 1 July 1941.[56]
|
National Security Act 1939 and B Griffen-Foley, Sir Frank Packer: the young
master: a biography, Harper Collins, Sydney, 2000, p. 118.
|
May 1941
|
The Government agrees in principle to grant a
newsprint licence to begin publication of a new paper, the Daily Mirror. It
reverses this decision, but later changes its mind and the Daily Mirror
commences as a Sydney afternoon newspaper, despite the wartime newsprint
restrictions imposed on existing publications. Frank Packer resigns
Chairmanship of Australian Newspapers Conference in protest.
|
Australian Newspaper History Group (ANHG),
Newsletter, 15, November 2001,
p. 20, Ezra Norton, Australian Dictionary of Biography entry and Whitington, op. cit., pp. 150–1.
|
December 1941
|
Four radio stations ordered to close after they
broadcast information concerning the presumed sinking of HMAS Sydney.[57]
|
‘Ban on radio stations’, The Sydney Morning Herald,
2 December 1941, p. 6.
|
March
1942
|
Report of the
Joint Committee on Wireless Broadcasting (the Gibson Committee) is published.
The Committee notes that while the powers of regulation for commercial broadcasting
given to the Postmaster-General are considerable, they are also inappropriate
in dealing with minor offences—powers were only to revoke a licence or to
caution a broadcaster. It recommends that new legislation is introduced to
regulate commercial broadcasting.
Other matters raised by the Committee include:
-
concern that misuse of the power
and influence of radio broadcasting should not corrode the fabric of the
nation and
-
concern there is little
ownership of broadcasting licences outside the newspaper world—directly or
indirectly newspapers own or control 44 per cent of commercial stations.
The
report also looks at the development of networks of stations and recommends
that a Parliamentary Committee on Broadcasting monitors these to ensure that
a monopolistic situation does not develop.
|
Joint Committee on
Wireless Broadcasting, Report of the Joint Committee on Wireless
Broadcasting, (Gibson Committee), LF Johnson, Commonwealth Government
Printer, Canberra, 1942.
|
April
1942
|
All imports of
newsprint suspended so shipping space can be devoted to war time goods.
Rationing is relaxed in October 1943.
Newsprint rationing gives broadcasting a financial boost as advertisers turn
from print to radio.
|
‘Newsprint import inquiry sought’, The Courier Mail, 5 November 1942, p.
2 and ‘Increased issue of newsprint’, The Argus, 30 September 1943, p. 2 and
Carty, op. cit., p. 6.
|
May
1942
|
Keith Murdoch
becomes Chairman of HWT.
|
‘Sir Keith Murdoch
Herald Chairman’, News (Adelaide), 1 May
1942, p. 5.
|
June
1942
|
Passage of the Australian
Broadcasting Act 1942 (the Broadcasting Act).
Regulation of commercial stations is transferred from the WT Act and the
Australian Broadcasting Commission Act is repealed so that the Broadcasting
Act covers both commercial and national services.
Program
standards are required under section 60(1) of the Broadcasting Act so
that commercial licensees provide programs that are ‘to the satisfaction’ of
the Minister.
The Minister is given the power to grant, renew and otherwise make decisions
with regards to licensing.
Section 88(2) requires that at least 2½
per cent of music broadcast on any stations is devoted to broadcasting the
works of Australian composers.
Section 114 requires broadcasters to use Australians in the production of
programs ‘as far as possible’.
The Broadcasting Act requires the complete blackout of electoral
broadcasting 72 hours before an election.
Sections 100 and 122 of the Broadcasting Act require that
advertisements relating to medicine cannot be broadcast unless approved by
the Director-General of Health or the Minister responsible for broadcasting.
|
Australian Broadcasting Act 1942
‘Australian Broadcasting Act: important changes’, Westralian Worker, 26 June 1942, p. 2.
|
June
1942
|
Commercial
Broadcasting Stations Licence Fees Act
is passed. Licences granted to commercial broadcasters on conditions
determined by the relevant minister. Licences are £25 per annum plus
one half of one per cent of gross earnings of any stations which in the
preceding year had made a profit.
|
Commercial Broadcasting Stations Licence Fees Act 1942
|
1942
|
Walter Grant
becomes a major shareholder of Western Broadcasters owner of 2DU (Dubbo)—the
company is later to become Grant Broadcasters.
|
B Griffen-Foley,
‘Grant Family’, in Griffen-Foley, ed., op. cit., p. 196.
|
March
1943
|
The first report
of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Broadcasting, established by the Broadcasting
Act, is delivered. Committee suggests that widening its terms of reference
is advisable. Accusations made in the media that the committee is seeking
control over broadcasting and that it wants to usurp policy functions
previously undertaken by the ABC.
|
‘Broadcasting dangers’, The Sydney Morning Herald,
6 April 1943, p. 6.
|
July
1943
|
Second report of the
Parliamentary Standing Committee on Broadcasting recommends that there should
be ministerial control over arrangements which involve broadcasting stations
organising into networks. The Committee believes such control would help
ensure networking does not lead to monopoly control of commercial
broadcasting.
|
ABCB, Second
Annual Report, Commonwealth Government Printer, Canberra, 1949, p. 6.
|
August
1943
Labor retains government at the federal
poll.
|
November
1943
|
Following a number
of censorship breaches, Frank Packer’s Telegraph is ordered by the
government censor to submit all copy for approval before publication. An
undertaking given by the paper to observe censorship ‘on certain conditions’
leads to the order being revoked. The paper continues to be involved in
censorship controversy during the war years.
|
B Griffen-Foley, Sir
Frank Packer, op. cit., pp. 147–8.
|
April–October
1944
|
Dispute erupts
between the government censor, (supported by the Information Minister, Arthur
Calwell), and Sydney newspaper proprietors over wartime censorship.
The papers accuse the Government of trying to ‘out Goebbel Goebbels’ by
censoring reports which it assesses as dangerous to public morale. The papers
defy the censor by printing material they are ordered not to publish.
During Sydney newspaper printers’ strike (over the 40-hour week campaign)
publishers produce a composite newspaper. Minister Calwell suggests the
composite paper is unlicensed.
Federal police stop deliveries and the High Court grants an injunction, after
which discussions between the Government and the papers result in a
compromise whereby only matters of defence security are subject to
censorship.
|
Souter, Company
of Heralds, op. cit., p. 238 and various reports including:
‘Mr Calwell runs true to form’, The Sydney Morning Herald,
12 October 1944, p. 2.
|
November
1944
|
The Government
asks the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Broadcasting to report on the
manner in which, and to what extent, television should be incorporated into
Australia’s broadcasting system.
|
Parliamentary
Standing Committee on Broadcasting, Twelfth report: relating to Frequency
Modulation broadcasting, television broadcasting and facsimile broadcasting,
Commonwealth Government Printer, Canberra, 1946, p. 4.
|
1944
|
Anderson Analysis
of Broadcasting and McNair Survey companies begin audience surveys.
|
I MacKay, Broadcasting
in Australia, op. cit., p. 171.
|
1945–1950
|
May
and August 1945
World War II ends in Europe (May) and the Pacific (August).
|
October
1945
|
Postmaster-Generals’
meeting adopts general principles for broadcast of children’s programs.
|
‘Children’s radio’, The West Australian, 9 October 1945,
p. 4.
|
July
1946
|
The Broadcasting
Act is amended to require that the ABC record and broadcast parliamentary
proceedings.
|
Parliamentary Proceedings Broadcasting Act 1946
|
August
1946
|
The Broadcasting
Act is amended to provide for regulation controlling the operation of
broadcasting networks and requiring commercial broadcasters to obtain
permission from the Postmaster-General before acquiring shares in a network
company or entering into an agreement with a network company for sharing
programs or advertisements.
|
Australian Broadcasting Act 1946
|
September
1946
Joseph (Ben)
Chifley leads Labor to a comfortable victory at the 1946 election.
|
1946
|
Federation of
Australian Radio Broadcasters (FARB) publishes a broadcasting practice
standard.
|
Griffen-Foley, Changing
stations, op. cit., reference to FARB meeting with ABCB, p. 44.
|
1947
|
Government decides
that no action should be taken to introduce television services.
|
A Curthoys, ‘The
getting of television’, in A Curthoys and J Merritt, eds, Better dead
than red: Australia’s first Cold War 1945–1959, Allen and Unwin, Sydney,
1986, p. 126.
|
June
1947
|
ABC begins an
independent news service.
|
A Barker, What
happened when: a chronology of Australia from 1788, fourth edn, Allen and
Unwin, St Leonards, 2000, p. 265.
|
August
1947
|
Newspaper
proprietors warn the Government that its policy of continued rationing of
newsprint is likely to lead to widespread job losses in the industry.
|
Griffen-Foley, Sir
Frank Packer, op. cit., p. 169.
|
September
1948
|
Australian
Broadcasting Control Board (ABCB) is established by an amendment to the Broadcasting
Act. The ABCB is to ensure that broadcasting services are developed and
operated with regards to the public interest.
In so doing, the ABCB is given directions to ensure a reasonable variety of
programs are broadcast, religious programs are broadcast ‘for adequate
periods’ and the broadcast of political or controversial matter is on an
equitable basis. It is also given power to regulate advertising and the hours
of service of broadcasting stations.
Commercial broadcasting
stations are restricted to using Amplitude Modulation (AM) for broadcasting.[58]
(ABCB commences operations in March 1949).
|
Australian Broadcasting Act 1948
|
November
1948
|
Packer and
Theodore convert Consolidated Press to a public company and acquire all
Associated Newspapers’ shares.
|
‘”Telegraph” public company plan’, Cessnock Eagle and South Maitland Recorder,
12 November 1948, p. 7.
|
1948
|
Experimental
Frequency Modulation (FM) radio stations set up and allowed to operate, but
Government prevents receivers being sold to the general public. Reports that
the Government favours FM to be broadcast only by the ABC.[59]
|
P Marcato, ‘FM
radio’, in Griffen-Foley, ed., op. cit., p. 174 and ‘The government looks at radio’, News (Adelaide), 5 May 1948, p.
2.
|
March
1949
|
Subject to certain
conditions the ABCB allows advertisements to be broadcast on Sundays.
|
ABCB, Fourth
Annual Report, Commonwealth Government Printer, Canberra, 1949, p. 23.
|
June
1949
|
ABCB reports to
the Government that television services should be established in the six
capital cities as soon as the necessary arrangements can be made. The Board
proposes to impose transmission and program standards.
|
ABCB, First
Annual Report, Commonwealth Government Printer, Canberra, 1949, p. 9.
|
June
1949
|
British Mirror
Group buys the Melbourne Argus.
|
Chadwick, op.
cit., p. xxvi and ‘New “Argus” control’, The Sydney Morning Herald, 28 June 1949, p.
3.
|
December
1949
The 1949 election sees Robert Menzies
lead the Liberal Party, in close cooperation with the Country Party, to
victory.
|
1949
|
Sir Keith Murdoch
buys HWT shares in the Adelaide News and offers first option on his
shares in Brisbane’s Courier-Mail to HWT.
|
Chadwick, op.
cit., p. xxvi.
|
|
|
|
|
|