Bundaberg Council, a regional government, told Reuters a
website it runs received classification as a Google "news source",
making it the country's first local government with that accreditation.
That means a council-funded website containing only public relations
content gets priority in Google News searches about the agriculture hub of
100,000 people, accompanied by a "news source" tag. Bundaberg also
has the country's only confirmed council-run Facebook page tagged as a
"News & Media Website".
The designation shows the gaps left in the country's
traditional news market as smaller publications wither and disappear. Bundaberg
Council's news website says it does not publish court and crime reports,
politics, "investigative journalism" or "negative stories".
"It's just another example of the way these tech giants
are allowed to operate outside any accountability framework at all," said
Denis Muller, an Honorary Fellow at University of Melbourne's Centre for
Advancing Journalism. "If they want to classify a council PR website as a
news website, well, they can, and there's nothing stopping them."
Alphabet's Google and Facebook are fighting an Australian
federal government plan to make them pay media outlets for original content
that appears on their platforms, telling a Senate inquiry that the new rules
may lead them to cancel some core services in the country.
A Google representative did not respond to a separate
Reuters request for comment on Friday.
In a submission to the inquiry, Bundaberg Mayor Jack Dempsey
said the new rules would "subsidise failed business models" and may
have "unintended consequences, including ... damage to new media entrants
and innovative publishing models such as Bundaberg Now".
Bundaberg Council's executive officer of communications,
Michael Gorey, told Reuters commercial media such as state broadcaster the
Australian Broadcasting Corp still provided news in the region "albeit
with less coverage than several years ago".
"Commercial media have a strong focus on news such as
crime, tragedies and local politics which Bundaberg Now chooses not to
report," he said in an email. "Bundaberg Now seeks to fill a gap in
the media market with community news, local business and events. We see no
evidence of market failure in Bundaberg to warrant federal government
intervention".
The City of Onkaparinga, in the country's south near
Adelaide, started news website Onkaparinga Now in 2018. A representative said
the council has not applied for official news provider status with Google or
Facebook.
© Reuters
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