A veteran radio journalist has raised concerns about the effect propaganda from the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is having on Chinese-speaking Australians after he discovered that state-sponsored propaganda had been hitting the airwaves for over twenty years in Sydney.
Nick Wong, a former Wellington-based Chinese newspaper publisher, as well as a former member of the New Zealand Parliamentary Press Gallery, said he was concerned about the security implications of multicultural radio programming in Australia after working at 2tripleO 98.5FM in Burwood, New South Wales.
Programs Taken Directly from Beijing
2TripleO 98.5FM, which identifies as a multicultural language radio station, has been using five hours of prime time every day to broadcast programs from China Radio International (CRI), the CCP’s state-owned international radio broadcaster, to the New South Wales community.CRI was identified in an ASPI report “The influence environment, A survey of Chinese-language media in Australia” in late 2020 as a vehicle for the CCP to expand its overseas influence.
“The CCP has proactively expanded its media influence overseas by establishing more external propaganda outlets to make China’s voice heard. This has involved using both modern methods, such as social media, and traditional methods, such as newspapers, radio and television,” reads the report.
“One traditional method has been China Radio International (CRI), which is a state-owned radio broadcaster used to promote CCP-produced content in 44 languages to nearly 70 affiliate radio stations globally.”
“The Mandarin programme from 7 a.m. to 8 a.m. fully propagated the CCP’s 20th National Congress and the leader Xi Jinping’s speech, and some news stories attacked Taiwanese democratic society,” he told The Epoch Times. “One or two Chinese community leaders in Australia were interviewed to support and promote the Congress.”
Wong believes that this poses a tremendous security concern, as the CCP uses programming to influence Chinese people overseas and penetrate into Australian society, especially the majority Chinese Australian population in the Greater Sydney area.
“We do not have any system to educate the Chinese migrants to understand the Australian values,” he wrote in an email to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, which has been viewed by The Epoch Times.
“A big percentage of those people believe the CCP = China. They still keep the stage of brainwashing as patriots of China or CCP and nationalism of China or CCP,” he said. “If a war happens between Australia and China, some of those Chinese migrants can take guns towards the Australian army, I believe.”
The Epoch Times listened to the CRI programs on the station’s website during different time slots and confirmed that a large portion of the station’s radio programming lent heavily towards pro-Beijing programs.
“We do not treat this program as a Communist Party program as you referred to, but China in their national language, which is Mandarin. This program has a wide listenership in the fast-growing Chinese community of NSW,” he said in an email to The Epoch Times.
The Attorney General’s Department told The Epoch Times in an email that it does not comment on the application of the Foreign Influence Transparency Scheme Act 2018 to specific individuals or entities but confirmed that 2TripleO is not registered.
Chinese Programs Far Outweigh Other Languages
Another allegation by Wong is that the Chinese programs of 2TripleO, a multicultural language radio station, far outnumber programs in other languages.In an email to Wong, which has been viewed by The Epoch Times, Inoke Huakau, the radio station manager and board committee president, confirmed that the company would maintain its “One Language One program/Broadcasting Group Policy.”
“Over the years, our policies were designed to maintain cohesion among our culturally diverse members of the company,” reads the email. “The licensee company MCRA Ltd. operates in accordance with the Broadcasting Act 1992, as directed by the ACMA (Australian Communication Media Authority) policies and regulations.
In comparison, other languages’ programs are very limited and at an off-peak time. For instance, the Korean program runs only one hour a week at 4 p.m. on Thursday, based on a “real schedule” offered by Wong.
“Therefore, there are at least two programs in the same language, Mandarin, with the radio station,” said Wong, who alleged that the station used the policy to drive out his radio programme in Cantonese and Mandarin.
The Epoch Times listened to the radio on Wednesday. During time scheduled for programs in Urdu and Thai, music is played instead.
However, Huakau, in his communications with The Epoch Times, defended the station’s programming and attributed this phenomenon to “COVID restrictions.”
He noted that prior to the pandemic, the station had Greek language programming, but this had stopped due to restrictions.
“Most of the programs have continued broadcasting, and a few have not continued to do so,” he said in an email to The Epoch Times. “For those programs that have not started broadcasting, their airtime is reserved, and world music is produced as the current content until they confirm their intention.”
Industry Body Maintains Foreign Register
The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA), which is an independent statutory authority within the Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications and Arts portfolio, told The Epoch Times in an email that radio stations in Australia must abide by the industry codes of practice.The Codes include seven points such as not broadcasting material that would ‘incite for its own sake violence or brutality, mislead or alarm listeners by simulating news or events, present as desirable the use of illegal drugs, the misuse of tobacco or alcohol as well as other harmful substances, and glamorise, sensationalise, or present suicide as a solution to life problems.
Additionally, radio broadcasters are also barred from “broadcasting material that is likely to stereotype, incite, vilify, or perpetuate hatred against, or attempt to demean any person or group, on the basis of ethnicity, nationality, race, language, gender, sexuality, religion, age, physical or mental ability, occupation, cultural belief or political affiliation.”
Any alleged breaches of the code can be investigated, ACMA said, “where it is desirable to do so.”
They also noted that they had not in the past three years looked into or assessed any broadcasted Mandarin or Cantonese content that was created by the Chinese Communist Party media outlets.
“In the past three years (1 July 2019 to 30 June 2022), the ACMA has not assessed complaints about Mandarin and Cantonese programs provided by the Chinese government,” Naazbano Schonberger, the media advisor for ACMA, said.
However, Schonberger noted that ACMA does maintain a register of foreign owners of media assets called the FOMA register.
Under the scheme, a foreign stakeholder—someone who holds 2.5 percent or more in an Australian media company who owns either a commercial radio broadcasting licence, a commercial television broadcasting licence or a newspaper that is listed in the ACMA’s Associated Newspaper Register, is required by the foreign ownership of media assets scheme to notify ACMA about their interests.
Meanwhile, the Department of Home Affairs said they would “endeavour to respond as soon as possible” to The Epoch Times’ inquiry over the CCP’s influence on the Chinese media in Australia.
The Epoch Times also reached out to the Minister of Communications Michelle Rowland but did not receive a reply at the time of publication.
