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Seeking to assess the current state of international broadcasters (IBs) within the framework of public diplomacy, this paper assesses the relevance of state-sponsored IBs within the contemporary public diplomacy. This paper focuses on the IBs of two neighboring countries, Indonesia and Australia, and political authorities' dynamic support for their services. Data were obtained through desk reviews of IB policies, in-depth interviews, and online observation of the websites of Siaran Luar Negeri (SLN, Indonesia's IB) and ABC Radio Australia (RA, Australia's IB). This paper finds that both countries have continued to use IBs for their public diplomacy, yet 'political parallelism' determines the position and sustainability of each. SLN has had limited political support and faced a series of managerial crises, while RA has enjoyed the fruitful support of the Australian authorities and has been heavily involved in public diplomacy in the Asia–Pacific region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research provides critical, comparative insights into the public communication responses employed by Australia and New Zealand during the first twelve months following the World Health Organization declaring COVID-19 a global pandemic. The two nations share a similar socio-political and cultural context, but despite being highlighted by the international media as early success stories, their public communication responses to the pandemic showed noteworthy differences. Borrowing from cultural studies, this paper applies the circuit of culture model and offers a snapshot in time that reinforces the importance of socio-cultural awareness when communicating intricate and challenging information. It supports the idea that a range of effective solutions to complex communication challenges are possible and may result in a similar outcome, including strengthened identities and national pride during uncertain times. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the system of journalistic accountability in Australia, evaluating its capacity to promote 'the highest ethical and professional standards' seen as fundamental to achieving the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) vision for an inclusive information society. First, it outlines the approach to media and journalistic accountability adopted in Australia. It then analyses a representative sample of journalism codes of ethics and codes of practice, classifying them according to their approaches to self-regulation, the key characteristics of the codes and the approaches to dispute resolution adopted. The findings of this analysis are then compared with best practice in self-regulation criteria distilled from the Taskforce on Industry Self-Regulation to identify potential problems with the current scheme of journalistic self-regulation. These criteria are then critiqued, identifying a range of problems in relation to the scheme's capacity to promote information society objectives as articulated by the WSIS in relation to the role of traditional and new media. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]