Abstract
In October, 1478 the NSW Branch of the Australian Labor Party announced that it had entered into an agreement to sell its interest in Newcastle radio station 2HD to that region's sole commercial television station, NBN-3. The acquisition by NBN-3 of 2HD would have created the highest degree of concentration of electronic media ownership within the one city in the history of Australian broadcasting.
That announcement generated one of the most politically intriguing and legally important sequence of events in the history of Australian broadcasting regulation. The decision to sell 2HD generated bitter division within the Labor movement and has thus far lead to two Supreme Court actions, two separate hearings by the Australian Broadcasting Tribunal and promises to lead to the High Court. At this moment the most important event from the point of view of broadcasting law and policy is the decision of the Australian Broadcasting Tribunal which finally emerged on 19th July, 1979.
The Australian Broadcasting Tribunal denied its consent, necessary for the transfer of the station's licence, when after the second of its hearings into the matter it concluded that the result of the sale would have been to place the control of the available commercial electronic media outlets in the Newcastle region into too few hands. In the Tribunal's view such a situation “would have been contrary to the interests of the Newcastle public as they relate to broadcasting services available to them”.
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