The Election, The Rules & The ACMA
A Must Read For All Community Broadcasters
We all know that there is an election waiting to happen, infact by the time you read this there may already be an election underway.
Politics can be an exciting game and an election even more exciting but with that game just like all games there are rules and this article will outline what rules all community radio broadcasters need to adhere to during an election.
We have an election, we have rules and we’ve also got the Australian Communications Media Authority, who will be quite busy at the moment trying to ensure that everything runs smoothly during a very action packed peirod of Australian History in the making.
The Election is not an everyday event so understanding the rules is probably not going to be easy and that’s why ACMA has released a detailed factsheet that will really aid all of you in understanding and complying with the rules.
Now to understand what the rules mean for you as a community broadcaster you’ll need to download and read the PDF factsheet below, but first let’s sumarise the key points for reference:
The Broadcasting Services Act, Parts 1 & 2 of Schedule 2 contain definitions and rules that deal with access, timing and identification in relation to the broadcast of political and election matter.
- Access for all parties – If you broadcast any political or election matter during any election period then you must give all parties contesting the election a reasonable oppourtunity to also broadcast election matter. You don’t have to provide access free of cost.
- Blackout period – A broadcaster must stop broadcating election advertisement from the end of the Wednesday before the polling day until the close of the poll on polling day.
- Announcement particulars – All radio broadcasts must include a spoken announcement (a tag containing authorisation and political party etc) of the required particulars as detailed in the downloadable factsheet (pages 1 & 2).
- Record Keeping – Political & election material broadcast must be logged and records including the name, address & occupation or the person who requested the broadcast or the company name, address and principal office address if requested by a company. Keep these records for 6 weeks or until the close of polling on polling day whichever is longer. A Broadcast in the form of news, an address, a statement, a commentary or discussion, that relates to a political subject or current affairs, must have a record of the matter in a form approved by the ACMA. The record must be kept for six weeks, or 60 days if a complaint has been made about the matter.
The above key points require detailed understanding and the definitions of many terms are available in the Broadcasting Services Act 1992.
If a licence condition in relation to political or election matter is breached, the ACMA may take enforcement action, including the issue of remedial directions, or the acceptance of enforceable undertakings.
Please donwload the ACMA’s PDF Factsheet here.
If you have any further questions about the above subject please get in touch with us using the contact page or email info [at] scma.org.au – replace [at] with @
