Community broadcasters are being advised that the ACMA will begin publishing failures by broadcasters to undertake actions repeatedly assigned in association with their licensing obligations.
When the ACMA approves an application to allocate, renew or transfer a community broadcasting licence, it sometimes assigns the licensee actions it should undertake to improve areas of its service relating to its compliance obligations.
When a licensee fails to undertake an assigned action, as a first step the ACMA may assign it the same action again and provide a second opportunity to complete the action. After this, if the licensee still has not completed the assigned action and does not have an adequate explanation for not completing this assigned action, it will be named in a notification on the ACMA website.
Broadcasters will be given a two-month grace period before the ACMA starts publishing notifications of this kind, with the first notifications set to be published in September 2024, as necessary.
The ACMA is of the view that an early focus on potential problems will lead to stronger industry-wide compliance and reduce the likelihood of contraventions requiring us to use our formal compliance or enforcement powers under the Broadcasting Services Act 1992.
More information is available here: https://www.acma.gov.au/assigned-actions.