I am very glad to see the full page article in the current issue of Background Briefing, by Pat Ranald of the Australian Fair Trade and Investment Network (AFTINet), on the threat to the ABC implicit in the GATS agreement currently under negotiation by our government at the WTO, and supported by both major parties. This should be a wake-up call to us all if we don't want to see OUR ABC traded away. Pat says "So far most governments have not included . . . public broadcasting" in the list of services to be put up for auction. This may be true, but then most governments don't have an institution like OUR ABC. One that does is the UK, with the BBC. As I've mentioned here before (http://www.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id=00A56k), there are indications the UK Government sees the BBC as being negotiable. If this is true of the BBC (under a "Labour" government) how much more at risk must OUR ABC be, especially with the good Senator Alston's open hostility to it? Please read Pat's article, if you haven't already, visit the AFTINet site as suggested, and write to the government, opposition and independents to tell them to keep their hands off our national broadcaster. You'll never forgive yourself once it has gone, and there will be no way to reinstate it, ever. Thank you. Tony

-- Anonymous, December 12, 2002