The inevitable backlash against the ABC’s plans to launch a 24 hour news service has begun. Mark Hollands, the Newspaper Publisher’s Association’s CEO offers this piece.

He argues that the ABC should be offering “Core media services” but not “niche media products for audiences already well served”. The ABC should interpret its charter as licencing it to concentrate on areas of market failure, says Hollands, not compete with commercial services. He emphasises the lack of Australian drama on Australian TV as one area of market failure.

In other areas Hollands seems a bit behind the pace. He says

Apound to peanuts, the ABC will eventually begin to launch localised websites,using its local radio content to compete with local newspapers.

Umm, they already do.

Meanwhile the chief executive of Sky News, Angelos Frangopoulos, weighs in with an attack, saying that the new ABC Channel will inevitably reduce the quality of and funding for Auntie’s existing services.

Frangopoulos claims that the ABC is in breach of its Charter which, according to him, mandates that it provide only services that commercial broadcasters do not supply.

Now, a lot of this debate is predictably circulating around the ABC Charter. All sides are interpreting that document to suit themselves. So what does the Charter actually say?

You can read it here.

And the minute you do, you will see that it is terribly out of date. For a start, it says that the functions of Auntie are to provide

“ innovative and comprehensive broadcasting services”  (my emphasis).

No mention of text only products (such as the Drum). No mention of online at all.

The charter provides little comfort to those who would argue that the 24 hours news channel is not “Charter” because the truth is that the document is wide enough to drive a truck through. It merely requires the ABC to:

“take account of the broadcasting services provided by the commercial and public sectors of the Australian broadcasting system”.

Doubtless ABC boss Mark Scott would say he has duly taken account and reckons the ABC, with its journalistic resources and gravitas, can and should do better than Sky News.

The fact is that the ABC already is providing round the clock news online, and there is no mention of online in the Charter. If you want to get pedantic, moving the service to a broadcasting platform is arguably MORE in line with the Charter than what the ABC is already doing. That’s how unhelpful things like Charters become when nobody updates them.

Now, those with long memories will remember a mega-gab fest called the 2020 summit, early in the Rudd Government’s term. That gabfest resulted in a recommendation that the ABC Charter be strengthened and revised.

The Government responded:

The Government will consider these ideas further during 2009. They will be studied in the context of the current triennial review of funding of national broadcasters (ABC and SBS). Consultation for the review is complete and the forward package of support for national broadcasting will be announced in the near future.

And that’s the last we heard of it.

Those at the 2020 Summit were generally friendly to public broadcasting. Remember that the co-chair of the “creativity stream” was Julianne Schultz, who is now on the ABC Board.

The creativity stream also wanted a dedicated ABC Children’s Channel – which came to pass – and more money for Auntie – which also came to pass. But the Charter? Nobody has mentioned it since.

Who can doubt that those less friendly to the ABC, including News Limited and Sky News, will now be turning their attention to what the Charter says, and leafing through the yellowing pages (well, not really. They are online) of the 2020 summit?

Revising the Charter in the present climate would be a complete can of worms. Who dares open that can?

I bet Rupert dares.