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AIB Interview
John Doherty,
ABC AsiaPacific TV
KS: John, how did you come to be involved
in international television?
JD: I’m a journalist by background. I started as a
cadet journalist with the
Sydney Morning Herald
,
and after I finished my cadetship I went to the
Adelaide Advertiser
. I moved through the ranks
to management positions fairly early in my
journalistic career and then in the mid-1980s was
approached by Channel 9 [one of Australia’s
national networks] to join its Adelaide newsroom
as a chief of staff. From there I became news
director of Channel 9 in Adelaide, a position I
held for about 6 years. While I was doing that I
decided that I would go to university. I didn’t go
to university when I finished school and always
regretted that, so I went and completed a Masters
of Business Administration at the University of
SouthAustralia.
After my studies I felt that I needed a new
challenge, and the ABC was looking for a state
director for South Australia. I applied for that
position and was successful. I was only into that
role for about 6 months when I was seconded by
the ABC to put together a proposal by the ABC
to run an international satellite television service.
That was successful, and the government awarded
the contract to the ABC to run Australia’s new
international satellite television service for five
years. As a result of me being intimately involved
in the proposal to the federal government, I was
then involved with negotiating the contract with
the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade
who fund the service.
Following the successful completion of the
contract negotiations, theABC asked me to head
a project team to set up the service. So I was
involved with setting up the television service
which went to air on December 31 2001 at 8pm,
and I have remained with the service ever since.
It’s now jointly managed by me as the Head of
International Operations and Ian Carroll, Head
of Network and Programming.
KS: Who were the competing bidders for
the service?
JD: There were several bidders. The principal
ones were SBS, which isAustralia’s multi-cultural
television service, and an independent
organisation calledAVI, headed by David Hill, a
former ABC managing director. He had been
involved in setting up the first international
television service from Australia in, I think,
1991. It was a very bold attempt back then, and
unfortunately no-one realised the potential and
the necessity for international broadcasting to
the extent that we do now.
KS: What is that necessity?
JD: I think if you are a broadcaster of world standing
such as the ABC international television is
something it should be participating in. It is
recognised in the ABC Charter which states that
the Corporation is given the brief to engage in
international broadcasting. I think the time has
got to be right – I think the time was probably
right back then but therewasn’t a full understanding
of everything that would be required.
KS: In terms of delivery, or in terms of
content?
JD: Funding was actually the crucial issue. The
ABC originally entered this with all the right
motives but the funding was just inadequate to
sustain the service. So then the fledgling service
was sold to Channel 7, one of Australia’s domestic
television networks, but it ran into similar problems.
It just couldn’t sustain the amount of funding
needed to compete, and it wasn’t raising enough
revenue, and so it closed. But the government and
the ABC recognised that if a service is to be
successful it has to be adequately funded.
KS: So in the new system, how much of
your funding comes from the government?
JD: We are completely funded by the
government. We are funded to the tune of just
over A$90 million for five years through the
Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.
KS: Can you be truly independent when the
majority of your service is funded by the
Australian government in a region which is
always wary about government intervention?
JD: I think the fact that we have done so
well in terms of rebroadcasting arrangements
in such a short time answers that. When we
began marketing the service, a lot of
rebroadcasters said to us: “Well, you are just
another embassy channel”. And there are so
many international channels out there which
are clearly that. But once the rebroadcasters
saw our service, they realised that we weren’t.
The Federal government of Australia have
gone out of their way to ensure that we are
not seen as the mouthpiece of the Australian
government. And if you look at our
programming, particularly news and current
affairs, you see Australia as a vigorous
democracy where opposing views are put and
argued and defended strenuously.
KS: That raises a question about the public
service ideals. If you’re part of the ABC,
but carry advertising, does that mean there
are different editorial policies?
JD: Absolutely not. We are governed by the same
stringent editorial policies and guidelines of the
ABC.TheABCwouldnotbeinvolvedinthisservice
if that wasn’t the case. I should point out that in
our contract with the Department of Foreign
Affairs and Trade those ABC editorial guidelines,
the service’s independence along with the integrity
of theABC is maintained. Although we are funded
by government we are independent of government
– our contract specifically states that the
Department of Foreign Affairs can’t intervene in
matters of editorial policy or programming policy.
KS: But surely ABC AsiaPacific carries
advertising? What about the revenues
from that?
JD: It does. We are permitted to raise revenue
through advertising and sponsorship and other
means to supplement the funding that comes
from the government. So we are a little different
to the national public broadcaster in Australia
which does not carry advertising. We can seek
advertising and we are vigorously doing so. All
money raised from advertising and other revenue
streams must go back into the service.
KS: What is the reasoning behind ABC
AsiaPacific – is it to make Australia a
stronger voice in the region – is this a
government mouthpiece?
JD: We are not a government mouthpiece. I
mentioned earlier we are a public broadcaster,
therefore we are funded by the government, but
we are categorically
not
a public mouthpiece.
And neither is theABC inAustralia a government
mouthpiece. I would like to point out that the
first imperative that the government stated in
terms of what they expect fromABCAsiaPacific
is providing a credible, reliable and independent
voice in the region. And who better is there to
exemplify that imperative than the ABC?
KS: How does all this fit with the long-
established Radio Australia – another ABC
service?
JD: The ABC has set up a new division, the
international broadcasting division, and of
course RadioAustralia andABCAsiaPacific have
been brought together under that umbrella.
However, I have to point out that RadioAustralia
remains, and should remain, independent ofABC
John Doherty is head of International Operations at ABC AsiaPacific, the
Australian international television service that launched in December 2001
and now reaches out to viewers across the Asia-Pacific region.
Kerry Stevenson
has been talking to John about the role that the station
has in the competitive, multi-channel world of Asian international television.
