Sport was valued above news when last Saturday's 7 o'clock television news was delayed to broadcast the end of a tennis match. The news and current affairs budget has been cut , Lateline has been reduced, and the decision to replace the Friday edition of the 7.30 Report with Stateline is simply robbing Peter to pay Paul. While Stateline needed a better time slot this should not be at the expense of the 7.30 Report.

Meanwhile the ABC's already meagre level of Australian production continues to drop as the ABC moves Something in the Air from a four time a week 30 minute series to a weekly one-hour program.

And what of the ABC's promotion of itself? 'Your ABC' - with its emphasis on the ABC belonging to the public - has gone. There is a new glitzy promo, but it is cold, impersonal and metallic. It appears that the ABC is running more and more promotions for its own programs, or does it just seem that way because they are so brash and over done? Will programs ultimately change too, to meet the new dramatised manner in which they are now promoted?

The community has made clear what sort of ABC it wants. In Canberra on Sunday over 10,000 people demonstrated in support of the ABC remaining an independent broadcaster, fully funded by government and uncompromised by commercial interests.

It is now over to ABC Board and to our political leaders. As caretakers of a treasured Australian institution, ABC Board members must act in the public's interest to maintain the ABC's high quality and independence. The government must immediately reverse its destructive policies toward the broadcaster. In offering itself as an alternative government, it is time the ALP went beyond exclamations of support for the ABC and presented its plans to ensure the ABC's healthy, independent future.

Darce Cassidy
National Spokesperson
Friends of the ABC