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Some expected Stephen Conroy to do nothing on media reform in an election year. He’s done something — but it’s not much, and it may not pass Parliament anyway. The government’s minimalist approach fails to address convergence.

Recommendations for a government-funded media regulator were howled down in the UK just as they were here. One of the architects of the local proposals reckons the debate has been stomped on — by the media.

Time is ticking for the government to act on media regulation. There’s plenty of talk inside the government but nothing concrete is emerging. Could it all be too hard?

If you think a report is inaccurate, biased or unfair in its reporting on the findings of the Finkelstein inquiry or Convergence Review, don’t bother going to the Australian Press Council with a complaint.

Yesterday, Bernard Keane untangled some of the false arguments behind opposition to a public interest test for media ownership. Today, David Salter reviews the parallel campaign against content regulation.

David Salter’s analysis fundamentally misunderstands the principles which have underpinned broadcasting legislation for over 80 years, writes News Limited CEO Kim Williams.

Kim Williams’ speech dealing with media regulation were so utterly cack-handed, writes David Salter, veteran journalist and former Media Watch executive producer.

Media company CEOs have written to the government expressing concern about media regulation. Crikey has obtained the unpublished letter …

The situation of Fairfax Media, with three editors standing down in one day, make this a good time to think carefully about what journalists mean by editorial independence.

There is a respectable point of view among those who analyse media businesses that the smart thing to do for serious news journalism is move to the political right.

Fining newspapers or forcing them to publish a right of reply when they are found to have breached standards would be a fundamental attack on free speech, according to News Limited’s editorial chief.

One of the authors of the independent Finkelstein media inquiry says the Convergence Review’s method of regulating the media won’t work because non-compliant media companies can’t be forced to join self-regulatory bodies.

The Convergence Review gives non-commercial media, including the ABC, SBS and community broadcasters, a nice deal on spectrum, the suggestion of access to more money, and a pat on the back for doing a good job.

How does the Convergence Review balance its deregulatory vibe with its assertion that content standards are still necessary, because the community expects them and because failing to restrict access to some content can do harm?

So the Convergence Review report is big — very big, in number of pages and in implications.

The announcement late last week by the owners of The West Australian that they will resign their membership of the Australian Press Council has interesting ramifications, writes David Salter, veteran journalist and former Media Watch EP.

Fairfax and News Ltd should not be collaborating in a five-minutes-to-midnight attempt to boost the Australian Press Council in order to fend off Ray Finkelstein’s call for a statutory regulator.

After a fortnight of frothing about how the Finkelstein report is the greatest threat to press freedom since Stalin was a boy, is News Limited quietly preparing for a more moderate position? asks David Salter, a veteran journalist and broadcaster

For all the talk (some reasonable, some not) about the threat to freedom of speech, it looks increasingly as if Ray Finklestein’s proposal for a government-funded grand media regulator will be a non-starter.

Popular US radio show This American Life ran a program last week that spent an hour retracting a recent TAL story on Apple factories in China. It provides an interesting comparison to the media here in Oz, writes Sean Rintel.

After months of ongoing discussions, Private Media, publisher of Crikey, is officially joining the Australian Press Council.

Everyone from the Prime Minister down was praising the launch of The Mackay Telegraph, a hard-copy giveaway with a 25,000 print run and available online.

You can have timeliness or independence when it comes to media complaints, but it’s hard to have both.