10. The Future and Funding of Transnational Broadcasting and Soft Diplomacy in the Indo-Pacific

There is no more time to waste in ensuring ongoing funding for Australia’s transnational broadcast voice in the Indo-Pacific, focused on the new digital age. This book has acknowledged that many of the countries in the Indo-Pacific are under intense pressure from a range of actors, and has argued that Australia’s public broadcaster the ABC is best-placed to assist its neighbours, particulaly those which have under-developed local news and information eco-systems. While a recent boost to Australian public broadcast funding in the region, and further Australian government funding for development aid, has been welcomed, these funds are not guaranteed for the long term, and are tied to the generosity of the elected government of the day; this is certainly not enough to regain trust in the region, nor support the many and varied information needs of countries of the Indo-Pacific. It is time for Australia to broaden its view from supporting just its closest neighbours in the Pacific, to the wider Indo-Pacific. With climate change, the increasingly fraught relations between nations, and the complex political, security and media environment, Australia has an opportunity to increase transnational broadcast funding and ensure that this service is safe from future government or internal management cuts. If Australia is to meet the strategic ambitions for the region by China, or indeed the ambitions of other nations, it must take a long-term multi-generational vision to the region including securing widespread regional support through long-term funding for its trasnational broadcast and digital news services.