Defending advertisement-free public broadcasting is neither left-wing prejudice nor self-indulgence, it is simply a rational choice of publicly funded, but not government controlled, broadcasting.

A bit like publicly funded universities. Or libraries, art galleries, orchestras, national parks and any of the other cultural institutions that the people agree to support collectively. Even Parliament. There is a view of broadcasting that it is naturally a commercial enterprise which God intended to be paid for by advertising revenue. According to this view, publicly funded broadcasting is, indeed, an indulgence and something that is tacked onto the end of ‘real’ broadcasting.

But there is another view, developed by public-spirited people in times gone by. They looked first at the fact that broadcasting was carried on the public radio frequencies and decreed  that first claim to those scarce frequencies should be a form of radio designed for the public good.

Broadcasting has an important cultural function, particularly on such a large continent with such a small population. It is a unifying medium that fosters a sense of identity within an improbable nation. Taxes are the way we buy civilisation, and public broadcasting is an institution of civilisation.

Terry Lane  The Age 16aug03