Association of Community Access Broadcasters 2009 Conference

Association of Community Access Broadcasters 2009 Conference

I greet you this morning in some of the many languages broadcast around New Zealand on access and community radio:

Shalom   (Israel)

Maalim wanaqsan (ma-lim wa-nak-san)      Somali (Somalia, Ethiopia)

Namasté   (India, East Asia)

Fakaalofa atu      Niuean (Niue Island)

Buenos días   Spanish (America, Spain)

Konnichi wa  Japanese (Japan)

Choum reap sour (choom - reep - sooer)     Khmer (Cambodia)

Sat siri akal    Punjabi (India, Pakistan)

I'd like to acknowledge the community access collective of 11 stations, their governors, management and programme makers; Chairman of the Association of Community Access Broadcasters, Mike Williams; Terri Byrne and the team at Planet FM who are hosting the conference; the previous speaker, Mayor Bob Harvey, and the following speaker Rod Oram.

It's a pleasure to be invited to your national conference, and to have the opportunity to address you this morning.  I've been asked to speak as Minister of Broadcasting about the national vision for community access radio, the benefits and value of the sector; the challenges and opportunities that it faces, and the position it occupies in our policy and planning, now and in the future.

Place of Access Radio

Community access radio remains a key platform. We continue to invest around $4.5 million annually in regional, ethnic and special interest content, with a significant proportion of this investment going to access community radio. 

While there haven't been a lot of changes in terms of policy direction for the sector, we recognise the important complement that access community radio provides to national and commercial broadcasters, particularly for groups who are not well served by mainstream media.  We are also aware of the many benefits that accrue from a healthy community broadcasting sector, which I will now touch on briefly.

Benefits of Community Access Radio

First, there are tangible and measurable outcomes.  Community radio projects generate valuable training and work experience opportunities - people can learn how to prepare a programme, conduct research, record on-station and off-station and operate equipment for a live show.  Community radio also contributes to local education in a variety of fields, from language instruction and current affairs, to local politics and religion.

There are harder to measure benefits, such as the contribution made to tackling social exclusion, services to neighbourhood and interest groups, improving knowledge about local authorities, public health, settlement, civil defence and other essential services.

Other key benefits of community radio are in providing access to local people which can help build self esteem, grow confidence and engender community pride, and in giving a voice to particular groups, such as minority language groups, who do not normally have access, or have only limited access, to mainstream media.  For a growing number of migrants, refugees and other new New Zealanders, community radio is the strongest link they retain with their mother tongue, and their best path to understanding and participating in the unfamiliar culture of New Zealand.

These benefits may be more intangible, but are nonetheless important functions which help us to fulfill our obligations as set out in the Broadcasting Act 1989 to provide for the interests of women, youth, children, people with disabilities, minority ethnic groups, and for the range of ethical and religious beliefs that make up modern, multicultural New Zealand.  They also make you, as community broadcasters, an indispensable part of our broadcasting landscape.

Role of Government

So what is the government's role in all this - and more importantly, is it changing?

We are looking for clarity and consistency in non-commercial radio spectrum usage, and will ensure that public broadcasting interests are reflected in the licence renewal process.

As Minister, I am acutely aware of the issues facing the sector, namely the availability of frequencies, the expansion of the sector as a whole, and of course the perennial question of funding.  I will try to address each of these in turn, and will be able to go into more detail in the Q&A session to follow.

Review of funding

As part of last year's review, we asked for your views on a number of issues, ranging from funding models and outcomes, to airtime sales and legislation.  We were happy to receive your feedback on these and a number of other concerns.

Funding is of course a critical element in your relationship with government, and is understandably an ongoing concern for many of you.

The good news story here is that most stations have received (all be they modest) funding increases in the 09/10 funding round - which is good in the context of the recession and also given the stresses and strains that commercial radio is facing here and abroad.

To enable this to happen, the supplementary fund is being disestablished, and stations will not now be able to seek funds for minor additional projects during the year.  NZ On Air will retain a small fund for significant capital needs and genuine emergencies; however we expect that calls on this new fund will be rare and that stations will have effective planning processes to deal with most situations.

These decisions should provide some certainty in the short to medium term while broadcasters and NZ On Air work together to establish funding priorities for the future in what you can appreciate is a very difficult economic environment.

Non-Commercial Licence Renewal

While the process and criteria for non-commercial licences are still in development, the following conditions are likely to apply:

• A non-commercial station should use the majority of hours in peak listening time for programmes made by, and reflecting the interests of, the community it serves.


• The station should have a policy of identifying a range of potential programmes reflecting the diverse interests of the community at large or that identified as the focus of the station, such as students, a marginalised age group, ethnic minorities or religions.


• The station should seek out, train and encourage those in the targeted area of community interest to participate in programmes, as host/producer and/or guest contributor.


• Desirably, a station should schedule seminar-type training events where skilled broadcasters share their skills with potential broadcasters on the station.


• Where a station has the only non-commercial frequency in a town or city, care should be taken to include a range of programme genres.


• The station should investigate local internet services for possible extensions of broadcast material and/or join with local stations of similar interest to create a web presence for live streaming and/or podcast material.


• Access or student radio stations may have only one or two paid staff. Therefore the integration of office and studio volunteers, and programme producers should have clear written procedures agreed by the governance body, the paid staff and the volunteers.


• A business plan indicating a consistent funding stream for the operation of the station will be crucial.

What needs to be kept in mind is that these criteria have been designed to produce robust and sustainable community access stations.  In most cases I would imagine that they are already being met by most, if not all stations in your collective.

FM Licence Allocation

The allocation of FM licences has been a significant issue for some community access broadcasters. 

It was good to see eight new FM licences allocated recently, and it would be good to see more of these released in the future.  Unfortunately there are limits, both technical and logistical, to the number that we have available for allocation.  Radio spectrum is, after all, a scarce resource and we have to balance a number of competing demands for these.

With this in mind, I think it is timely to consider whether the government wishes to maintain the current Crown reserve radio spectrum block 102, and I have directed officials to undertake an appropriate review of the policy over the course of this year.  We will be informing sector representatives of developments on this front as decisions are made.

Policy and Legislation

It has been suggested from time to time that there ought to be further legislative provision made for community radio, or some form of entrenchment of the sector within law.

The issue with greater legislative recognition is that it runs the risk of prescribing functions to stations, imposing constraints on services which are already stretched in terms of their time and resources.  The beauty of Access Radio is that it lacks the usual restraints of programming imperatives and editorial control that mainstream broadcasters are subject to.  The principle of ‘by the community, for the community' is what makes your sector distinctive and it would be a shame to see this compromised in any way.

I believe that the current provisions as set out in the Broadcasting Act provide a good balance between responsibility and control, and that an arms length relationship between community access broadcasters and government best serves the needs of all stakeholders.

This is not to say that government has little interest in the development of the sector.  In addition to the requirements as set out in section 36, we have the Regional and Community Broadcasting Policy Framework, which makes explicit the key roles of regional and community broadcasting, and outlines broad policy goals and objectives for the sector.  The framework is not intended to be a prescriptive policy text; rather it is a high level guide which gives direction to operational policies as they are designed, implemented and reviewed. 

I have recently been briefed on the policy framework, as well as the revised allocation criteria previously referred to, and I expect to be able to circulate these for your consideration, shortly. 

Challenges and Opportunities

Returning to the focus of this year's conference, any future vision for community broadcasting must take into account the rapid change in media technologies, as well as developments in other jurisdictions.

I note that your panel discussion this afternoon is titled Thinking Globally, Acting Locally.  This is certainly relevant in the context of learning from what is going on overseas, as community and access radio stations in other countries face many of the same challenges and opportunities as you do here.

One of the points that emerged from last year's consultation around funding for community broadcasting was the rapid growth of community access radio internationally, and particularly on the internet.

In the UK, for example, there has been exponential growth of community and access radio since licensing was introduced there in 2003.  Of particular interest is a report from Ofcom, the British media regulator, which calls the sector a ‘real success story', for its resilience during the period of economic downturn, and its ability to deliver rich and varied content, keeping public interest in the sector high.

Community and Access Radio stations are able to tap into their volunteer networks just as other stations are cutting paid staff numbers.  Similarly, the sector can continue to offer the ‘local factor' that commercial stations are finding it increasingly difficult to provide in an era of increased global syndication. 

Technology

Rapidly changing technology presents real challenges for the sector, particularly the convergence of media technologies, and the development of digital broadcasting.

We may not yet have digital radio in the sense of a platform such as Freeview, but radio is certainly getting into the digital world. Ten years ago, the only way a listener could access Radio New Zealand was on AM or FM: now, it can be accessed on Freeview, Sky, the internet (as live stream, audio on demand, or podcast) and the current Kordia trials of Digital Audio Broadcasting in Wellington and Auckland.

I note that a number of community and access stations are already broadcasting over the internet.  It is good to know that you are working in this space already.

Sometimes, it is a good idea not to be the first off the block when it comes to technological change.  By looking closely at Britain's DAB transmissions and Australia's DAB+ trials, we will be able to monitor how both countries are managing the switch-over, and learn from their experiences.  There are significant costs involved for broadcasters in moving to digital platforms, and a longer lead-in time for this is, I believe, in the long-term interests of the community broadcasting sector.

I would like to finish by thanking you for giving me the opportunity to address you today.  I wish you all the best for a successful and constructive conference.