Queanbeyan Community radio Station 2QBN Breaches Licence Conditions

The Australian Communications and Media Authority has found that Queanbeyan Community Radio Inc, the licensee of community radio service 2QBN Queanbeyan, breached the condition of its licence that requires it to encourage members of the community it serves to participate in the operations and programming of the service.

2QBN also breached the Community Broadcasting Codes of Practice 2002 by not having volunteer guidelines or a written conflict resolution policy in place.

ACMA investigated complaints that 2QBN had rejected a number of membership applications, denied access and equity to community members, discriminated against members of the community it serves, engaged in inadequate management practices, did not have guidelines in place regarding the principles of volunteering and did not have a written policy and procedure in place in relation to internal conflict resolution within the organisation.

In light of these breaches of the licence condition and code, ACMA will now move to pursue compliance measures addressing the potential for future breaches of the relevant licence condition and code provisions. ACMA will be writing to Queanbeyan Community Radio Inc shortly about the proposed compliance actions, details of which will be announced when finalised.

A copy of the investigation report is available on the ACMA website ^[1].

Thanks to Irene in Brisbane for the tipoff. Article courtesy ACMA ^[2].

Samuel