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Media choices: restrictions may be relaxed on ownership laws.

The Abbott government has given its strongest indication yet that it will relax restrictions on media ownership, paving the way for more consolidation of the industry.

Two days after meeting with Australia's most powerful media executives, Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull questioned why the country needed specific ownership rules regarding print, television and radio, given the surge in competition from the internet.

Axing the laws would allow a potential takeover of Ten by News Corporation, which has strong links with the network, whose chairman is Lachlan Murdoch.

It could also allow Fairfax Media, owner of The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, to join forces with a television partner such as Seven.

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Also under scrutiny is the 75 per cent reach rule. This restricts television networks from broadcasting to less than 75 per cent of the Australian population.

A parliamentary committee was of the view last June that the ''reach rule was becoming redundant with the advent of the internet and converging media'' and supported its removal.

Analysts at JPMorgan say the scrapping of the reach rules could make takeover targets of regional TV networks Prime Media and Southern Cross Media.

Prime broadcasts Seven content in regional areas while Southern Cross broadcasts Ten content. The privately held WIN Television broadcasts Nine content.

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Coalition 'sympathetic' to relaxing restrictions on media ownership

Exclusive: The only foreign policy show on the U.S. media dial this past week has been the bashing of Russian President Putin over the Ukraine crisis with a slap or two at President Obama for having worked with Putin on Syria and Iran. Lost in this group think is the why behind this demonization,reports Robert Parry.

By Robert Parry

The U.S. political-media elites, which twisted themselvesintoa dangerous group think overtheIraq War last decade, have spunout of control again in a wildoverreaction tothe Ukraine crisis.Across the ideological spectrum, there is rave support for the coup that overthrew Ukraines elected president and endless ranting against Russian President Vladimir Putin for refusing to accept the new coup leadership in Kiev and intervening to protect Russian interests in Crimea.

The we-hate-Putin hysteria has now reach the point that former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton hasdeployed the Hitler analogy against Putin, comparing Putins interests in protecting ethnic Russians in Ukraine with Hitler citing ethnic Germans in Eastern Europe to justify aggression at the start of World War II.

Russian President Vladimir Putin. (Russian government photo)

I just want people to have a little historic perspective, the reputed 2016 Democratic presidential frontrunner told a question-and-answer session at UCLA on Wednesday, confirming reports of her using the Hitler analogy during an earlier private fundraiser.

Some Clinton backers suggested she made the provocative comparison to give herself protection from expected right-wing attacks on her for having participated in thereset of U.S. policy toward Russia in 2009. She also was putting space between herself and President Barack Obamas quiet effort to cooperate with Putin to resolve crises with Iran and Syria.

But what is shocking about Clintons Hitler analogy and why it should give Democrats pause as they rush to coronate her as their presidential nominee in 2016 is that it suggests that she has joined the neoconservative camp, again. Since her days as a U.S. senator from New York and as a supporter of the Iraq War Clinton has often sided with the neocons and shes doing so again in demonizing Putin.

Democrats might want to contemplate how a President Hillary Clinton would handle that proverbial 3 a.m. phone call, perhaps one with conflicting information about a chemical weapons attack in Syria or muddled suspicions thatIran is moving toward a nuclear bomb or reports that Russia is using its military to resist a right-wing coup in neighboring Ukraine.

Would she unthinkingly adopt the hawkish neocon position as she often did as U.S. senator andasSecretary of State? Would she wait for the fog of war to lift or simply plunge ahead withflame-throwingrhetoric that could make a delicate situation worse?

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The We-Hate-Putin Group Think

(03-07 11:26)

The head of the powerful US gun lobby railed against American media Thursday, saying it was biased and lying about the heated debate on regulating weapons. One of America's greatest threats is the national news media that fails to provide a level playing field for the truth,'' NRA executive vice president Wayne LaPierre told an annual conference of conservatives just outside Washington, AFP reports. Congress failed to pass a hotly contested gun control law last year, despite a series of recent mass shootings that shocked the nation. The failure came after stiff opposition by the National Rifle Association and other gun groups, which mounted a successful counter-campaign and warned members that the US government was bent on taking guns away. The political and media elite are lying to us,'' LaPierre told the annual Conservative Political Action Conference. LaPierre, whose group counts about five million members, said the media ''hate us, just for saying out loud and sticking up for what we believe, as if we had no right.'' But their moral indignation, it should be directed right into their own makeup mirrors,'' he added. His comments echoed criticisms often made by conservatives about the mainstream media, which former Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin once memorably dubbed the lamestream media.'' LaPierre vowed that NRA members will never, and I mean never, submit or surrender to the national media.'' Recalling that the right to bear arms is enshrined in the Second Amendment of the US Constitution, LaPierre declared that standing with the NRA is a massive declaration of individual rights.'' And he promised a bare-knuckle street fight'' for this November's mid-term elections. US President Barack Obama, a Democrat, issued targeted executive orders and actions aiming to tighten rules for gun ownership and to help states provide information about the mentally ill for federal background checks. The rules were announced after the Newtown, Connecticut school shooting that left 20 young children and six staff dead in December 2012. The massacre relaunched a push for gun control laws in America and a handful of states have since tightened gun rules. But the national measures Obama sought, including a plan for enhanced background checks on gun buyers and a ban on assault-style rifles, failed in Congress. The NRA will not go quietly into the night. We will fight. I promise you that,'' LaPierre said.

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Defiant US gun lobby rails against media moral indignation

The most unregulated industry in the United States? The media, particularly the print media.

Some credit the 1st Amendment for this freedom of speech observance. Dont be fooled.

The media is largely unregulated because government cant stand the heat when it attempts to do so. Remember the Fairness Doctrine? It was supposed to guarantee equal time to both conservatives and liberals, aka Republicans and Democrats. It was a policy of the United States Federal Communications Commission, introduced in 1949, that required the holders of broadcast licenses to both present controversial issues of public importance and to do so in a manner that was, in the commission's view, honest, equitable and balanced.

Under fire, the FCC said, Oh, never mind, in 1987, and in 2011 formally removed the language that implemented the Doctrine.

The latest foray by government again as personified by the FCC with a cockamamie attempt to install monitors in newsrooms (both broadcast and print). The FCC, again under intense pressure from editors, publishers and reporters all over the country, left the field in late February.

The FCCs intent was obvious: It wanted to control news content, apparently with an eye toward limiting or eliminating criticism of the Obama administration, if not overtly, then by just having government personnel present to evaluate what stories were printed and/ or aired and what werent and the reasons behind the decisions.

In response to the resistance, Any suggestion that the FCC intends to regulate the speech of news media or plans to put monitors in Americas newsrooms is false. The FCC looks forward to fulfilling its obligation to Congress to report on barriers to entry into the communications marketplace, and is currently revising its proposed study to achieve that goal, Shannon Gilson, an FCC spokesperson, said when the proposal was dropped.

It wasnt intended as intimidation at all, now was it?

So heres what concerns us. When the news medias ox is gored, the outcry emanating from newsrooms is universal. But when the publics ox is gored in the form of regulations on individuals, businesses, taxation and a myriad of other facets of life, the media is silent. Thats because, in our view, the media particularly the broadcast media, but also including wide swaths of print is on governments side. We dont expect the media to suddenly turn to the right, which would result in sharp pullbacks from the regulatory swamp we all now inhabit. Thats too much to ask.

What we would hope for is a more evenhanded approach to government encroachment. That would benefit us all and we suspect the publics approval of media would also experience a rise.

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Myopic media

The Chennai District Election Office has set up a media cell and media centre to detect and control paid news in the run-up to the Lok Sabha elections. Based on directions from the Election Commission of India, the media cell and centre, located at Ripon Buildings, commenced operations on Wednesday.

Starting this week, the media cell will screen all news stories in broadsheet newspapers and tabloids to spot news stories likely to have been influenced by political parties using monetary rewards. It will also track all news stories on electronic and social media ahead of the Lok Sabha elections. The members will include city-based journalists and district election officials.

The cell will send reports of paid news stories to the District Election Officer on a daily basis. News stories that favour a particular candidate during the elections are likely to be under the scanner for content associated with paid news.

The cell will also keep a record of all news on candidates. Estimates of money spent on elections will also be made based on the assessment of records.

The District Election Office will initiate action against violations of the model code of conduct by political parties. The media centre will include a helpline and call centre.

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Media cell in Chennai to track cases of paid news