PARLIAMENTARY BROADCASTS

Press, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 26971, 21 February 1953, Page 7

PARLIAMENTARY BROADCASTS

Fewer Recommended For Australia

(Rec 8 p.m.) CANBERRA, Feb. 20. The Australian Broadcasting Commission has recommended fewer Parliamentary broadcasts. In a report tabled in Parliament the commission made these points: First, fewer broadcasts would be m the interests of the National Broadcasting Service and of Parliament itself. Second, a reduction would ultimately increase the level of Parliamentary listening. Third, long Parliamentary broadcasting sessions inconvenienced listeners and had deterred overseas Parliaments from following the Australian experiment. Fourth, the excessive use of broadcasts could discredit the practice among Australian listeners and observers abroad.

Fifth, an objective review by Parliament might result in retaining all the advantages while eliminating adverse factors. The report said the commission believed that Parliamentary broadcasts were a significant contribution to the better information of a democratic electorate, “but we are also of the opinion that a revision of total broadcasts of Parliament should be undertaken in the light of our experiences since 1946.”

The report added: “Discrimination between those sessions of Parliament Which make good broadcasting and those which do not is admittedly difficult.”