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ABC to close Fact Check Unit

Fact Check Unit to shut after three years, following cuts to ABC's Enhanced Newsgathering budget.

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2016-05-18_0102

The ABC is to close its Fact Check Unit after three years of operation, according to several media reports.

Operating with a staff of 14 journalists and an initial budget of $1.5 million, it is set to close after the July 2 election.

The move follows cuts to ABC’s Enhanced Newsgathering budget under the Turnbull government.

But Independent Senator Nick Xenophon said its budget is less than half of one per cent of the ABC News budget.

“It’s a very cheap insurance premium to keep pollies in check,” he said.

“I’m quite outraged and I think a lot of Australians will be outraged.”

Established in 2013, ABC Fact Check has operated across television, radio and online. Its editor is Russell Skelton and John Barron is presenter.

It has been referred to 50 times in the last session of the Australian Parliament, but has also been criticised by some politicians.

Since its inception Fact Check has received over 12 million views, and its pages receive around 80,000 to 150,000 views every week.

Source: Australian Financial Review

15 Responses

  2. I suspect that this is more likely a policy change implemented by Guthrie and is really about not biting the hand that feeds, rather than a genuine need to spend that money elsewhere.

      1. From what I saw of the output of Factcheck, I don’t see how they needed 14 journalists

        I get why they were trying to make it work, but it’d be a lot simpler to have the experts they consulted as guests on existing TV and radio programs – there’s plenty of time to fill on News 24 as an example

        1. Yeah I assumed the $1.5mil excluded wages. What I have failed to notice is that the Fact Check was a separate unit rather than extra responsibilities of existing personnel

    2. Yes indeed. And where does one find this fact checking program.? I have never come across it.
      Talking of cuts, will Media Watch be the next to go?

  4. Not exactly a budget cut. The ABC was given an additional $30 million over 3 years to establish and run additional news services, over and above it’s triennial funding. Given the establishment costs of these new units (Fact Check, Regional Bureaux etc) were part of the initial funding allocation, the ongoing costs to sustain them should be far lower and able to be supported by the new funding deal. No services should need to be dropped.

  6. Outrageous! ABCTV destroyed, NBN high speed internet destroyed and he is now prime minister, he and those others don’t deserve to govern this country.

    1. how so? The ABC is still running. And like other broadcasters they should pay their fair share, the commercial TVs need to get money back at the expense of ABC. It wasn’t even going to be delievered by Labor at all. He can’t be any worse Shorten and his team, as there is a lot of noise and no action.

      1. “…the commercial TVs need to get money back at the expense of ABC.”
        Why? They are businesses running at a profit. They have already had their spectrum license fees reduced again. Why should money be taken from the ABC and given to them?

    2. NBN destroyed? umm… yea…

      consider youself lucky enough that the government is stupid enough (both sides) to pay for private infastructure with public funds, when the telecommunications companies should be paying for this instructure themselves… the government used to own infrastructire when they owned telecom… then sold it all off.

      now they are paying for the instructure again…Go pay $1000 like I did to connect to Opticomm fibre (yes paid for before the government paid for NBN) simply just to connect at home, over and above the monthly fee.

      ahh wait… you just want free stuff

      1. The govt had to step in because Telstra certainly wasn’t going to do it and neither was anyone else. It’s no more private infrastructure than the railways.

        The govt invests public funds in these major projects because they will put the country in a better position in the long run. Investment is usually returned many times over. The govts of other countries have similarly invested in a nationwide internet backbone. The difficulty with Australia is it’s a huge landmass and very sparsely populated which generally makes the numbers pretty marginal apart from the coastal plain from Brisbane to Melbourne.

        I like free stuff but the NBN isn’t free. I pay taxes. What’s spent on NBN isn’t spent on roads, hospitals, etc.

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