Exclusive interview with former Australian Communications Minister Paul Fletcher.
– Photo: Amar Ujala

Expansion

There has been a long-standing debate around the world about who gets what share in the earnings from online content. … But there is also a country which has brought big tech companies under the purview of the rules by enacting a law on this. This country is Australia and Paul Fletcher played a key role in shaping such a law. Paul was Australia’s Minister of Communications from 2020 to 2022. The News Media Bargaining Code he created has had the effect of making it easier for digital news publishers in Australia to demand their fair share of profits from big tech companies.

‘Amar Ujala’ had a special conversation with Australian MP Paul Fletcher, who came to India to participate in the Digital Conclave of Digital News Publishers Association ie DNPA and Exchange for Media. They say that for equality, fairness and transparency between digital news publishers and big tech companies, the government should make decisions, not that control should be in the hands of tech companies. Read, their experiences on this issue…

1. How was the journey to create legislation to help digital news publishers in Australia? How difficult was it?

Paul Fletcher: I was then working with Prime Minister Morrison. We started work from 2017. We had asked the competition regulator to frame it. In 2020, we announced that we will bring a law. We started talks with companies like Google-Facebook on one hand and news media on the other. Companies and media were given a chance to express their opinion on this. News Media Bargaining Code was formed in 2021, but the journey was not easy. Google told us that they may withdraw the search services. Then we discussed the possibilities of Microsoft expanding Bing to Australia. After this there was no problem with Google. On the other hand, Facebook also closed the Facebook pages of Australian news media. It is unfortunate that they have also closed important pages of essential public facilities like ambulance, rape crisis center. It was not a good move according to common people, but we stood firm. We had strong political leadership. Since then, tech companies started negotiating with news media publishers.

2. Australia’s digital market is slightly different from India, is the bargaining code made there useful for India as well?

Paul Fletcher: What will be the policies regarding media in India, it has to be seen by the Government of India. We can share our experience here in Australia. I must say that India’s IT sector has achieved extraordinary success. Companies like TCS, Infosys and Wipro have a large presence in Australia. India has also taken great help of IT in providing services to the common citizens. This is extraordinary. This is the success of Modi government, IT sector and mobile service providers.

3. Are the monopolistic policies of big tech companies the biggest concern for the digital news media?

Paul Fletcher: In fact, it is an issue of competition policies. Google-Facebook has achieved extraordinary success in terms of digital advertisements. Their competition is with digital news media. They should share part of the earnings from advertisements. The content they are using to attract people is what makes the news media. For example, in Australia, if readers are coming to a video or news and if tech companies are successfully earning money through advertisements, then that content is basically TV media or digital media there. This issue is not exclusive to Australia. This is also a burning issue of digital media in countries like India, France, Britain, Canada, America. Every country has to make its own laws. The important thing is that the decisions related to this should be made by the sovereign governments there, and not the decision-making control should be in the hands of tech companies. The government oversees the relationship between Google-Facebook and news publishers in Australia.