Relief and tension trail News Innovation Fund decisions

The News Innovation Fund’s $31.5 million will be divided among 54 organisations across Australia, with successful applicants receiving between about $12,000 to $2.2 million.

Deaf Connect was awarded $1.4 million to expand Auslan90, a service delivering daily news and weekly deep dives in Australian Sign Language (Auslan). This funding decision marks a major turnaround for the service, which had been teetering on the brink of closure earlier this year as its original 18-month run of government funding was scheduled to end on 30 July.

“It is a significant win for Auslan and the deaf community,” Deaf Connect chief services officer Brent Phillips tells PIJI.

“Deaf Australians have the right to access and understand the news in our first language.”

The National Indigenous Times and Country Press Australia also received major funding under the program, each allocated $2.2 million.

Meanwhile, demand outstripped supply, with hundreds of reported applicants likely left disappointed. And some members of the industry were left out of the running from the start.

Read more in the full story below.

PIJI is an independent advocacy organisation. We appreciate your support.

Please consider forwarding this newsletter to someone interested in the sustainability of public interest journalism and its importance to the survival of democracy.

Relief and tension trail News Innovation Fund decisions

The announcement of successful News Innovation Fund recipients threw some Australian news publishers a vital lifeline and left others facing an increasingly uncertain future.

‘Mentally healthy journalists equals healthy journalism’: Work needed to prevent backslide on mental health progress

Journalists put more than their bodies on the line for their work, but mental health must be prioritised for the survival of the whole industry, experts say.

ICYMI: Industry updates

Australia

• ABC senior executive, policy and regulatory affairs, David Sutton told the Joint Select Committee on Artificial Intelligence that the public broadcaster has “no plan to create AI newsreaders.”
  He said ABC employees are told not to create replicas of people or their voices without “very, very careful consideration”, and while AI is used for research or content development by staff, anything that goes public must overseen by humans.
• SBS is reportedly planning at least seven redundancies in its news division, with anonymous sources telling Crikey’s The Snoop that further cuts are anticipated.
• Australian media workers were made to wear ‘Fake News’ lanyards to enter the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Brisbane.
  Journalists were reportedly told the lanyards, which also bore their names, needed to be kept on for “security reasons”.
  Michael McKenna, Queensland editor at The Australian, wrote he had called CPAC Australia chair Warren Mundine in 2025 to complain after hearing that reporters were issued the same lanyards, and Mundine had said he was unaware and acknowledged it wasn’t right.
• The ABC wiped staff devices that were exposed to zero-click spyware ads. The national broadcaster said it found no signs of compromise on the devices, but wiped any still in service as a precaution.
  This came after researchers found Israeli advertising agency Discover-Tech has been serving millions of online adverts that allow ‘zero-click’ spyware to be used against targets, including journalists.
  Discover-Tech’s technique was used to infect devices at Al Jazeera with spyware from another Israeli company, Candiru.
• The ABC reportedly threatened disciplinary action against journalist and MEAA federal president of media Michael Slezak over an opinion piece he’d written for the Australian Financial Review.
  This sparked an MEAA-led campaign calling on ABC management to respect elected union delegates and their right to advocate for issues that affect union members.
  Within a week, the MEAA notified members that more than 400 ABC members had signed an open letter to ABC management, and disciplinary action for Slezak was now off the table.
• The ABC revealed details of a 2024 review of Seven West Media, which was informed of a “diabolical” corporate culture and heard allegations that sexism, bullying and harassment were rife.
• Shadow communications minister Sarah Henderson questioned why News Corp outlets were ineligible for the Journalism Assistance Fund, while “the likes of Michael West Media” received funding under the program.
  She said the decision seemed “very prejudicial” and had implications for the respect of free speech.
  Labor senator Nita Green said News Corp was excluded from that particular funding round because of its foreign ownership, and the decision was not based on opinions of journalists working at its outlets
• Network 10 channels stopped broadcasting in Mount Gambier and the Riverland in SA and Griffith in NSW after the network and license holder WIN Televsion failed to reach a new agreement.
  WIN said the economics of regional markets, including high transmission and infrastructure costs, combined with digital disruption eroding audiences and advertising revenue make it challenging to maintain services in those regions.
• The MEAA called on Nine Entertainment to manage increasing staff concerns over pay, workloads and workplace conditions, as the network goes ahead with its Future News initiative.
  The union cited concerns the updated structure significantly increases job duties and expectations but lacks adequate acknowledgement or compensation for staff tasked with incorporating these adjustments.

Around the World

• Major US broadcasters are under investigation by the US Department of Justice for potentially violating federal antitrust laws over their White House coverage boycott.
  The boycott was sparked by US President Donald Trump’s decision to ban CNN, MS Now and Politico in September.
• A US judge ordered Trump to answer questions under oath in his defamation lawsuit against the BBC by 11 December, or face sanctions including the possible dismissal of his US$10 billion lawsuit.
  The US president is suing the BBC over an episode of Panorama that edited together two different sections of a speech he gave before the riot at the US Capitol in 2021.
  Trump cancelled a previous deposition in October citing “matters of national importance”, but a lawyer representing the BBC said Trump had prioritised campaigning in Georgia that day.
• The EU, Canada and Lithuania reportedly withdrew sponsorship from an international conference on disinformation following pressure from the US Trump administration in response to planned panels warning of the threat posed by the US government.
• Poland’s antitrust watchdog said it suspects Google of abusing ​its dominant market position while negotiating content payments with domestic media ‌publishers for displaying articles and snippets in search ​results, Google News and Discover services.
  The watchdog alleged Google failed to provide publishers with the necessary data to properly assess offers, leading to an information imbalance that prevented ​fair negotiations.
  A 2024 Polish copyright law amendment implemented an EU directive under which online services may use press publishers’ content in return for remuneration. The maximum fine for abusing ​a dominant market position ​could be up to ⁠10 per cent of a company’s turnover.
• Washington Post photojournalist Heidi Levine was left seriously injured after being beaten by Israeli settlers while working in the West Bank.
  Levine sustained four fractured vertebrae, two broken ribs and four puncture wounds from the attack, and said she would likely have been killed had she not been wearing protective body armour and a helmet.
  US ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee labelled the attack a “despicable act of terror” and demanded prosecutions. Israeli President Isaac Herzog condemned the “outrageous and shocking violence” and extended an apology to Levine.
  Reporters Without Borders has found nearly 210 journalists were killed in Gaza and Lebanon between October 2023 and October 2026; at least 71 were targeted or killed by Israeli soldiers in connection with their work.
• Russian authorities arrested Japanese journalist Yuki Imai on suspicion of espionage, accusing him of gathering information related to Russia’s defence capabilities for use against the state.
  The International Federation of Journalists and the Japan Federation of Newspaper Workers’ Unions (Shimbunroren) condemned the arrest and called for Imai’s immediate release.
• Myanmar’s military regime filed ‘red notices’ (a measure used to track and detain suspects) through INTERPOL against five of the country’s exiled independent media outlets
  The International Federation of Journalists and the Exiled Myanmar Journalists Network condemned the move as an attempt by the military junta to use international cross-border policing to expand its media crackdowns to silence critical journalism.
  Following the country’s 2021 military coup, the outlets had their licenses revoked and were forced into exile. At least seven journalists have reportedly been killed and at least 227 journalists detained by the junta since 2021.
• Turkish authorities took control of pro-opposition Halk TV, raiding the outlet’s Istanbul studios, cutting all broadcasts and appointing a government trustee to oversee the company during an investigation into alleged corruption.
  Human Rights Watch condemned the move as part of a wider effort by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s government to restrict Turkish citizens’ access to independent news sources.
  Halk TV’s takeover marks the fifth major Turkish news outlet forcefully put under trusteeship, ​following similar situations at Flash TV, Eko Turk, Haberturk and Tele1.
• The Guardian is ending the use of casual staff, with the UK’s National Union of Journalists reporting 370 journalists who have undertaken casual work for the publisher in the past 14 months will be replaced with 45 to 55 ‘rota shortfall’ staff’, augmented by 40 new digital apprentices.
  The Guardian has agreed to pay compensation to casual staff who do not take up new roles with the publisher.
• The BBC announced more than 100 job cuts and the shift of two channels, BBC Scotland and youth-oriented BBC Three, from broadcast to online streaming-only.
  Scottish culture secretary Màiri McAllan said moving BBC Scotland online was “wholly unacceptable”. BBC staff are set to vote on whether to take strike action after being told compulsory redundancies could not be ruled out.
  The changes are part of the BBC’s efforts to save £500 million by 2028, with up to 2,000 jobs to be scrapped.
• The UK’s Daily Telegraph cut up to 100 jobs, and the new owners told staff the publication will be transformed from a newspaper “into a global, AI-powered premium media and intelligence business”.
  The “next chapter” of the Telegraph will focus on new revenue streams including “video, audio, puzzles, events, B2B, licensing, commerce and new products”, according to Telegraph Media Group CEO Carolin Hulshoff.
• CNN and CBS News are now under one roof after Paramount Skydance completed its multi-billion merger with Warner Bros Discovery to form Skydance.
  A coalition of US states attempted to block the merger, but reached a settlement with the organisations, which included the creation of a five-member panel to safeguard the editorial independence of CNN and CBS News. Mark Thompson and Bari Weiss will retain their roles as editor-in-chief at CNN and CBS News, respectively.

Have something to share? Submit content for review to info@piji.com.au