* Australia’s Senate began debating the amendments onWednesday
* Some politicians concerned changes bad for smallerpublishers(Adds comments from treasurer, media companies)
By Colin Packham and Byron Kaye
CANBERRA, Feb 24 (Reuters) – Australian lawmakers areexpected to approve amendments to landmark legislation to forceFacebook and Alphabet’s Google to pay mediacompanies for news content, despite opposition from some minorpolitical parties.
The government introduced amendments to the so-called MediaBargaining Code after Facebook last week escalated a disputeover the new laws by blocking Australian users from sharing andviewing news content on its popular social media platform.
Australia’s Senate began debating the amendments onWednesday. The ruling conservative Liberal Party does not have amajority in the upper house, but support from the oppositionLabor Party is expected to be enough to pass the bill.
“What we’ve sworn to do is create a level playing field,”Australian Treasurer Josh Frydenberg told Sky News on Wednesday.
“We’ve sought to sustain public interest journalism in thiscountry, and we’ve also sought to enhance and encourage thosecommercial deals between the parties.”
Facebook on Tuesday said it would restore Australian users’access to news in light of the compromise it had reached withthe government.
In one major change, Frydenberg will be given the discretionto decide that either Facebook or Google need not be subject tothe code, if they make a “significant contribution to thesustainability of the Australian news industry.”
The original legislation had required the tech giants tosubmit to forced arbitration if they could not reach acommercial deal with Australian news companies for theircontent, effectively allowing the government to set a price.
Some politicians and media companies are concerned thechange allows Frydenberg to exempt Facebook or Google from thenew laws even if they do not strike deals with all mediacompanies, to the detriment of smaller publishers.
“This changes the bill significantly,” independent senatorRex Patrick, who plans to vote against the amended bill, toldReuters.
“The big players could successfully negotiate with Facebookor Google. The minister then doesn’t designate them, and all thelittle players miss out.”
Lee O’Connor, owner and editor of regional newspaper TheCoonamble Times, said the amendments appeared to favour bigmedia groups.
“It’s the vagueness of the language that’s the main concern,and the minister’s discretion is part of that,” O’Connor said.
Frydenberg has said he will give Facebook and Google time tostrike deals with Australian media companies before decidingwhether to enforce his new powers.
CONTENT DEALS
The code was designed by the government and competitionregulator to address a power imbalance between the social mediagiants and publishers when negotiating payment for news contentdisplayed on the tech firms’ sites.
After first threatening to withdraw its search engine fromAustralia, Google has instead struck a series of deals withseveral publishers, including a global news deal with News Corp.
Major television broadcaster and newspaper publisher SevenWest Media on Tuesday said it had signed a letter ofintent to reach a content supply deal with Facebook within 60days.
Rival Nine Entertainment Co also revealed onWednesday it was in negotiations with Facebook.
“At this stage, we’re still obviously proceeding withnegotiations,” Nine chief executive Hugh Marks told analysts ata company briefing on Wednesday. “It is really positive for ourbusiness and positive particularly for the publishing business.”
(Reporting by Colin Packham and Byron Kaye; writing by JonathanBarrett; editing by Jane Wardell)
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