The Tuggeranong Community Council (TCC) has launched an online petition calling on WIN TV management to reverse its decision to downgrade its Canberra and regional news service. The TCC is encouraging all residents in the Canberra WIN TV viewing area to sign the petition and to circulate it to family and friends via email and online social media. The petition calls on WIN TV management to reinstate its Canberra based produced and presented local news service and to assure Canberra and regional viewers their local news service will be retained. The TCC and many other Canberra community organisations and leaders believe the actions of WIN TV management will have a negative impact on local news gathering, local news coverage and the overall quality of local news and information in the Canberra WIN TV viewing area. The TCC believes WIN TV’s actions will also have a negative impact on the training, development and employment of future young journalists in Canberra who have spent years studying for a communications degree. The TCC also fears this is just the first step and WIN TV may not replace its journalists after they leave its Canberra newsroom and eventually all Canberra region news will be come from Wollongong. In the future all Canberra news bulletins could be produced by by journalists who have little or no knowledge of the National Capital Region, do not have a feel for our region and do not have the news contacts to initiate or generate stories themselves.
Click on the link below to add your name to the Tuggeranong Community Council’s petition calling on WIN TV management to reinstate its Canberra Produced and Presented local news service.
http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/restore-win-tv-canberra-produced-and-presented-local-news.html
See TCC letter to WIN TV Management: TCC letter to WIN TV
See Chief Minister’s letter to WIN TV: CM Letter to WIN TV
See letter to WIN TV by Member for Canberra, Gai Brodtmann MP Gai Brodtmann letter to WIN 050713
As a retired Canberra journalist I urge all WIN TV viewers to sign this petition. If we allow WIN TV to downgrade its newsroom, the next thing they won’t bother replacing journalists who leave and we will end up with a one-man show and a token news service as we have allowed Prime and Capital to get away with in the past. WIN TV, and the other commercial television stations must recognise we are the National Capital with a regional population of more than 500 thousand and we deserve a local news service. WIN, Prime and Capital are happy to collect the big dollars from advertisers but not prepared to provide the service that goes with local television.
Canberra is the Capital City of Australia not some hick country town. Move the whole of WIN to Canberra and run it from here.