This article is from the source 'nytimes' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.

You can find the current article at its original source at http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/21/world/asia/australian-leader-tries-to-save-media-law.html

The article has changed 4 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.

Version 2 Version 3
Australian Premier Tries to Save Media Oversight Law Australia Prime Minister Fights Own Party to Stay in Office
(about 1 hour later)
SYDNEY, Australia — Prime Minister Julia Gillard was trying on Wednesday to salvage contentious media-oversight legislation that has angered much of the Australian news industry and emboldened the political opposition. On Thursday, a senior government minister, Simon Crean, called on Ms. Gillard to hold a leadership ballot, and if she refused, he urged her colleagues in the Labor government to sign a petition to force a vote. Australian prime ministers are selected by lawmakers of the ruling party. SYDNEY, Australia — The embattled prime minister of Australia, Julia Gillard, was fighting for her political life on Thursday after she accepted a public demand for a leadership ballot put forward by a senior lawmaker from her ruling Labor Party, who said that the party’s only hope of prevailing in upcoming elections was to return to office the man Ms. Gillard deposed in a 2010 party coup.
Ms. Gillard, who became Australia’s first female prime minister in a 2010 party coup that ousted Kevin Rudd, has seen her poll ratings plummet since announcing in January that federal elections would be held in September. The senior lawmaker, Simon Crean, who led the Labor Party when it was in the opposition from 2001 to 2003, told reporters at a hastily assembled news conference in the capital, Canberra, that he had personally asked Ms. Gillard to hold the ballot — known in Australia as a “spill” — because the party had lost its way and had no confidence in her leadership.
The controversial legislation was proposed by Stephen Conroy, the communications minister, following up on an inquiry into news media practices that Ms. Gillard announced in 2011 at the height of the phone hacking scandal involving Rupert Murdoch’s media empire. Most episodes occurred in Britain, and no major allegations were proved against Mr. Murdoch’s Australian media holdings. “Something needs to be done to break this deadlock,” he said.
But the new proposals — particularly the creation of a government post given responsibility for overseeing the news media’s self-regulatory bodies and determining whether media mergers can proceed — were greeted by some of Australia’s leading media outlets with a scathing public campaign. The Daily Telegraph, a tabloid, published a front-page spread that grouped Mr. Conroy with such enemies of a free press as Mao Zedong, Kim Jong-il and Joseph Stalin. A defiant Ms. Gillard quickly announced on the floor of Parliament that she would hold the ballot at 4:30 p.m. Thursday. In the meantime, she told her colleagues, “take your best shot.”
Greg Hywood, the chief executive of Fairfax Media, which publishes The Sydney Morning Herald, also criticized the proposals as an affront to democratic principles. He told Parliament this week that the appointment of a regulator “will have seriously dangerous consequences for good government.” Ms. Gillard, who became Australia’s first female prime minister in a 2010 party coup that ousted Kevin Rudd, who was derided during his tenure for an authoritarian leadership style. But she has seen her poll ratings plummet since announcing in January, unusually early, that federal elections would be held in September.
Susan Forde, a professor of journalism at Griffith University, said the proposed media laws were “fairly weak and timid” “and “certainly nothing to be concerned about in terms of our democracy and freedom.” Ms. Gillard has led a tenuous minority government since her parliamentary majority was diminished in a disappointing 2010 election. Although she beat back a leadership challenge from Mr. Rudd early in 2012, she has since slid in the polls against Tony Abbott, the leader of the opposition Liberal-National coalition.
The proposals fall well short of some changes recommended by the panel that investigated Australian media practices. That body, led by a former federal judge, Ray Finkelstein, called for direct government oversight over print and online news media and the creation of a statutory regulator with prosecutorial power. Mr. Rudd has insisted that he would not challenge Ms. Gillard for the leadership, but his supporters, including Mr. Crean, seemed confident that Mr. Rudd would be nominated and would prevail in Thursday’s vote. “I wouldn’t be doing this if I did not believe there was the mood and the need for change within the party,” Mr. Crean told reporters when questioned on the internal vote count.
For Ms. Gillard, more worrisome than the hostility from the media has been her inability to get the independent lawmakers upon whom her fragile government relies to support the proposals, which has underscored her political vulnerability . The vote comes after Ms. Gillard failed to salvage contentious media-oversight legislation that angered much of the Australian news industry and emboldened the political opposition.
The independent Tasmanian lawmaker Andrew Wilkie backed away from the legislation on Wednesday despite heavy lobbying from the government. Another independent, Bob Katter, also said late Wednesday that he could not support the bill, which is scheduled to come up for a vote on Thursday. The legislation, which was withdrawn Thursday morning for lack of support, had been proposed by Stephen Conroy, the communications minister, after an inquiry into news media practices that Ms. Gillard announced in 2011 at the height of the phone hacking scandal involving Rupert Murdoch’s media empire. Most episodes occurred in Britain, and no major allegations were proved against Mr. Murdoch’s Australian media holdings.
Ms. Gillard has led a tenuous minority government since her parliamentary majority was diminished in a 2010 election. She beat back a leadership challenge from Mr. Rudd early in 2012, but has slid in the polls against Tony Abbott, the leader of the opposition Liberal-National coalition. Mr. Crean said that he would support Mr. Rudd for prime minister. The new proposals — particularly the creation of a government post given responsibility for overseeing the news media’s self-regulatory bodies and determining whether media mergers can proceed — were greeted by some of Australia’s leading news media outlets with a scathing public campaign. “For the first time in Australian history outside wartime,” said Greg Hywood, the chief executive of Fairfax Media, which publishes The Sydney Morning Herald, “there will be political oversight over the conduct of journalism in this country.”
But Susan Forde, a professor of journalism at Griffith University, said the proposed media laws were “fairly weak and timid” and “certainly nothing to be concerned about in terms of our democracy and freedom.”