Chris Hanretty » australia http://chrishanretty.co.uk/blog Notes on Italian politics and public broadcasting Sat, 04 Feb 2012 12:15:14 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.5 en hourly 1 Nominees to board of ABC http://chrishanretty.co.uk/blog/index.php/2009/04/01/nominees-to-board-of-abc/ http://chrishanretty.co.uk/blog/index.php/2009/04/01/nominees-to-board-of-abc/#comments Wed, 01 Apr 2009 08:30:38 +0000 Chris http://chrishanretty.co.uk/blog/index.php/2009/04/01/nominees-to-board-of-abc/ From ABC:

Julianne Schultz and Michael Lynch are the first two directors to be appointed to the ABC board under a new process implemented by the Federal Government to make the system more transparent.

Dr Schultz is the founding editor of the Griffith Review and is a Professor at the Centre for Public Culture and Ideas at Griffith University, while Mr Lynch has served as the Sydney Opera House and Australia Council chief executive.

]]> http://chrishanretty.co.uk/blog/index.php/2009/04/01/nominees-to-board-of-abc/feed/ 2 Directors-General of European PSBs http://chrishanretty.co.uk/blog/index.php/2006/11/23/directors-general-of-european-psbs/ http://chrishanretty.co.uk/blog/index.php/2006/11/23/directors-general-of-european-psbs/#comments Thu, 23 Nov 2006 20:30:00 +0000 Chris http://chrishanretty.co.uk/blog/?p=103 Measures of central bank independence have sometimes used the rate of turnover of Central Bank Governors as an indicator of de facto independence (which, it turns out, is reasonably strongly correlated with de jure independence). How does it work for PSBs? The following table gives the average time in post of a number of PSB Directors-General.

Public broadcaster Average tenure of DG
NRK [Norway] 9 years 8 months
ABC [Australia] 8 years 10 months
YLE [Finland] 8 years 6 months
DR [Denmark] 7 years 2 months
BBC [UK] 6 years 8 months
CBC [Canada] 5 years 4 months
ORF [Austria] 5 years 1 month
NHK [Japan] 4 years 6 months
Rai [Italy] 2 years 10 months
PTV [Poland] 2 years 10 months
France Télévisions/ORTF 2 years 6 months
Czech TV 1 year 11 months
MTV [Hungary] 1 year
RTVE [Spain] 11 months

Norway

List of Broadcasting Chiefs of Norwegian PSB NRK [from Wikipedia]

(According to his Wikipedia entry, Bernander is a freemason. A nice compliment to Sandro Curzi’s remarks about freemasons in Rai, no?)
Average tenure of DG: 9 years 8 months.
Percentage of government changes followed within six months by change of Director-General (Cukierman political vulnerability index): 3/21 = 14.29% [Korvald, Bruntland (I), Syse governments possibly followed by changes, though the timing may be wrong with no more precise dates than these]

Australia

Directors-General and Managing Directors of ABC:

  1. Sir Charles Moses (1935–65)
  2. Sir Talbot Duckmanton (1965–82)
  3. Keith Jennings (1982-83)
  4. Geoffrey Whitehead (1983–86)
  5. David Hill (1986–94)
  6. Brian Johns (1994–99 )
  7. Jonathan Shier (??/03/2000–31/12/2001);
  8. Russell Balding (29/05/2002–20/03/2006); left before the end of his five-year contract
  9. Mark Scott (22/05/2006–present)

Average tenure of DGs, excluding most recent: 8 years 10 months (5 years 9 months if one counts only managing directors)
Cukierman political vulnerability index: 1/11 = 9.09% [Hawke government followed by appointment of Geoffrey Whitehead]

Finland

List of Directors-General of Finnish PSB YLE [from Wikipedia]:

Average tenure of DG, excluding most recent: 8 years 6 months.
Cukierman political vulnerability index: 3/35 = 8.57% (counting changes of Prime Minister; Kekkonen (I), Virolainen, Koivisto (II) governments followed by changes); 1/6 = 16.67% (counting changes of President; Ahtisaari presidency followed by appointment of Wessberg).

Denmark

List of Directors-General of Danmarks Radio [from DR website]

  • Hans Juul Sølvhøj 1961 – 1964
  • Erik Carlsen 1964 – 1967
  • Hans Juul Sølvhøj 1967 – 1976
  • Laurits Bindsløv 1976 – 1985
  • Hans Jørgen Jensen 1985 – 1994
  • Christian Nissen 1994 – 2004
  • Kenneth Plummer 2005 -

Average tenure of DG, excluding most recent: 7 years 2 months.
Cukierman political vulnerability index: 0.

United Kingdom

BBC Directors-General (post-war period only):

Average tenure of DGs, excluding most recent: 6 years 8 months.
Cukierman political vulnerability index: 0.

Canada

Presidents of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, post-war period only:

Average tenure of Presidents, excluding most recent: 5 years, 4 months.
Cukierman political vulnerability index: 3/13 = 23.07% (Diefenbaker, Trudeau (I) and Chrétien governments followed by changes).

Austria

List of Directors-General of Austrian PSB ORF [from Wikipedia]:

Average tenure of DG, excluding most recent: 5 years 1 month.
Cukierman political vulnerability index: 1/7 = 14.28% (Vranitzky government followed by appointment of Podgorski).

Japan

NHK Presidents [Kaicho], post-Occupation period only [from Wikipedia, Ellis Krauss' Broadcasting Politics in Japan]:

  1. 高野岩三郎　1946年4月26日～1949年4月5日; completed a three year term before introduction of the 1950 Broadcasting Act
  2. 古垣鐵郎　1949年5月30日～1956年6月13日; two three-year terms; prolonged slightly by passage of the 1950 Act
  3. 永田清　1956年6月13日～1957年11月3日; Kiyoshi died in office
  4. 野村秀雄　1958年1月14日～1960年10月17日; Nomura appointed late after LDP factional disagreement
  5. 阿部眞之助　1960年10月17日～1964年7月9日;
  6. 前田義徳　1964年7月17日～1973年7月16日; three-term President, Maeda resigned after patron Satō died
  7. 小野吉郎　1973年7月17日～1976年9月4日; resigned two months into a second three year term
  8. 坂本朝一　1976年9月21日～1982年7月2日; two quiet three-year terms
  9. 川原正人　1982年7月3日～1988年7月2日; two three year terms
  10. 池田芳蔵　1988年7月3日～1989年4月4日; Ikeda resigned on grounds off ill-health
  11. 島桂次　1989年4月12日～1991年7月16日; Shima resigned after annoying certain LDP factions
  12. 川口幹夫　1991年7月31日～1997年7月30日; two quiet three year terms
  13. 海老沢勝二　1997年7月31日～2005年1月25日; resigned after corruption scandals
  14. 橋本元一　2005年1月25日～現在

Average tenure of Presidents, excluding most recent: 4 years, 6 months.
Cukierman political vulnerability index: 1/29 = 3.44% (Ikeda government followed by appointment of Shinosuke Abe).
Average percentage of tenure completed: 87.78%

Italy

Directors-General of RAI:
Salvino Sernesi 1949 1953
Giovan Battista Vicentini 1954 1955
Rodolfo Arata (June) 1956 1960
Ettore Bernabei January 5, 1961 September 18, 1974
Michele Principe May 23, 1975 January 25, 1977
Giuseppe Glisenti January 26, 1977 June 17, 1977
Pierantonino Bertè July 12, 1977 June 18, 1980
Villy De Luca June 19, 1980 July 21, 1982
Biagio Agnes July 29, 1982 February 1, 1990
Gianni Pasquarelli February 5, 1990 July 23, 1993
Gianni Locatelli July 23, 1993 August 3, 1994
Gianni Billia August 3, 1994 December 31, 1994
Raffaele Minicucci January 16, 1995 February 29, 1996
Aldo Materia [1] March 6, 1996 July 15, 1996
Franco Iseppi July 15, 1996 February 8, 1998
Pier Luigi Celli February 9, 1998 February 17, 2000
Pier Luigi Celli [2] February 17, 2000 February 9, 2001
Claudio Cappon February 9, 2001 March 19, 2002
Agostino Saccà March 19, 2002 March 27, 2003
Flavio Cattaneo March 27, 2003 August 5, 2005
Alfredo Meocci August 5, 2005 June 20, 2006
Claudio Cappon June 22, 2006 present

Average tenure of Directors-General, excluding most recent: 2 years 10 months.
Cukierman political vulnerability index: 8/36 = 22.22% (Fanfani (I), Fanfani (III), Moro (II), Andreotti (II), Andreotti (III), Ciampi, Berlusconi (I), Prodi (I), Prodi (II) governments followed by changes).

Poland

Presidents of Telewizja Polska (PTV):

  1. Wiesław Walendziak (Jan 1994 – Apr 1996)
  2. Ryszard Miazek (Apr 1996 – June 1998)
  3. Robert Kwiatkowski (July 1998 – Jan 2004)
  4. Jan Dworak (Feb 2004 – May 2006)
  5. Bronislaw Wildstein (May 2006 – )

Average tenure of Presidents, excluding most recent: 2 years 10 months.
Cukierman political vulnerability index: 2/9 = 22.22% (Pawlak (II), Cimoszewicz governments followed by changes).

France

Presidents of France Télévisions (and before, joint presidents of France 2 and France 3, and Presidents of ORTF):

Average tenure of President/DG of major public channel/group, excluding most recent: 2 years 6 months.
Cukierman political vulnerability index: 5/16 = 31.25% (Messmer, Chirac (I), Mauroy, Bérégovoy, de Villepin governments followed by changes).

Czech Republic

Česká televize, Directors-General:
Ivo Mathé 1. January 1992 1. April 1998
Jakub Puchalský 1. April 1998 31.january 2000
Dušan Chmelíček 1. February 2000 21. December 2000
Jiří Hodač 22. December 2000 11. January 2001
Inter-rim period
 11. January 2001 9. February 2001
Jiří Balvín 9 February 2001 27. November 2002
Petr Klimeš (inter-rim director)) 27. November 2002 18. July 2003
Jiří Janeček 19. July 2003 (current)

Average tenure of Directors-General, excluding most recent: 1 year 11 months.
Cukierman political vulnerability index: 2/7 = 28.57% (Tosovsky’, Spidla governments followed by changes).

Hungary

Magyar Televizio, Presidents [from EUMAP]

  1. István Nemeskürty (January–April 1990),
  2. Albert Szalacsi Tóth (April–August 1990),
  3. Elemér Hankiss (August 1990–January 1993),
  4. Gábor Nahlik (January 1993–July 1994),
  5. Tibor Szilárd (July 1994),
  6. Ádám Horváth (July 1994–December 1995),
  7. Ferenc Székely (January–September 1996),
  8. István Peták (October 1996–January 1998),
  9. Lóránt Horvát (January 1998–May 1999),
  10. Zsolt Szabó László (May 1999–July 2001),
  11. Károly Mendreczky (July 2001–July 2002),
  12. Imre Ragáts (July 2002–December 2003),
  13. György Pinke (January 2004–February 2004),
  14. Zoltán Rudi (March 2004–

Average tenure of Presidents, excluding most recent: 1 year
Cukierman political vulnerability index: 4/6 = 66.67% (Antall, Boross, Horn, Medgyessy governments followed by changes).

Spain

Directors-General of RTVE:

  • Fernando Castedo (Jan ‘81 to Oct ‘81)
  • Carlos Robles (Oct ‘81 to July ‘82)
  • Eugenio Nasarre (Jul ‘82 to Dec ‘82)
  • Jose-Maria Calvino (Dec ‘82 to Oct ‘86);
  • Pilar Miro (Oct ‘86 to Jan ‘89);
  • Luis Solana (Jan ‘89 to Feb ‘90);
  • Jordi Garcia (Feb ‘90 to May ‘96)
  • Mónica Ridruejo (May ‘96 to Feb ‘97)
  • Fernando López-Amor (Feb ‘97 to Nov ‘98)
  • Pío Cabanillas (Nov ‘98 to May ‘00);
  • Javier González (May ‘00 to July ‘02)
  • José Antonio Sánchez Domínguez (July ‘02 to April ‘04);
  • Carmen Caffarel (April 2004 onwards)

Average tenure of DG, excluding most recent: 11 months.
Cukierman political vulnerability index: 4 / 5 = 80% (all government changes since Suárez followed by changes, except change in 1993 between majority and minority PSOE governments).

]]> http://chrishanretty.co.uk/blog/index.php/2006/11/23/directors-general-of-european-psbs/feed/ 0 Morgan Poll on media bias in Australia http://chrishanretty.co.uk/blog/index.php/2006/07/14/morgan-poll-on-media-bias-in-australia/ http://chrishanretty.co.uk/blog/index.php/2006/07/14/morgan-poll-on-media-bias-in-australia/#comments Fri, 14 Jul 2006 21:14:00 +0000 Chris http://chrishanretty.co.uk/blog/?p=43 As part of my doctorate, I’m researching the political independence of public service broadcasters. This is a difficult concept to define, much less measure. One approach is to ask people whether they perceive the broadcaster to be independent – or impartial, or biased. (The latter two are very different to the former, but may be an acceptable proxy, since polls show that media attitudes are largely covarying). This Roy Morgan Research Poll looks at perceived bias in Australia.

The poll is an example of how to approach this problem badly.
First, the relatively small sample size of 700 pushes the margin of error up to 4%.

Second, some of the questions can’t be interpreted without controls. For example: how are we supposed to interpret the fact that relatively few people think internet news biased – when we don’t know how many of the sample regularly use the internet or have any familiarity with it?

Third, the poll uses broad categories: newspaper journalism, television journalism, and ‘talkback radio’. There is nothing intrinsically wrong with this; but it doesn’t help with answering the important question of whether ABC is biased, or whether some newspapers are biased – for example, those owned by Murdoch, or by Packer.

Fourth, the poll makes extensive use of open response questions, such as inviting individuals to name reporters they think biased. This prevents comparability over time and space, and may deliver misleading results if respondents name merely those respondents they are most familiar with.

Fifth – and evidence that the poll is, at best, pitched to increase interest in its findings, or, at worst, a push poll funded by interested parties (there’s no info on the commissioning party) – the poll asks about left-wing bias, but doesn’t ask about right-wing bias. Some might say that it is self-evident that there is more danger of left-wing bias than right-wing bias. But this is not at all self-evident, and asking questions about both types of bias would in fact help to confirm or disconfirm this presumption. Certainly, BBC polling in the early nineties found that more respondents thought the BBC was biased towards the (right-wing) government than the reverse.

We can say, however, that television tends to come off better than the printed word. This is unsurprising: regulation of poltiical content on television tends to be stricter than that applied to the press; the printed word has more regulatory room to be biased.

There isn’t much that is specific to ABC: one reporter identified as biased comes from ABC (compared to three from Nine); and 0.5% of the sample believe ABC News as a whole to be left-leaning. But, again, without asking separate questions about different news outlets, these results are of little worth.

I understand from this page that ABC commissions polls on this – but it makes the same mistakes – on the crucial issue of ‘being balanced’ it has no comparison with other broadcasters, merely comparisons over time.

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