Tim Bowden: ABC's diminishing docos

Former ABC all rounder Tim Bowden provides some cutting commentary on the state of ABC documentary making. From SMH Letters 26/2

ABC shares blame for decline of docos

May I endorse Tom Zubrycki's eloquent and passionate lament for the decline of the television documentary (''Australian documentaries will founder without courage and funds'', February 24). It is scandalous that the ABC has let its internal documentary-making capacity fall to near zero - a short-sighted policy enthusiastically endorsed by the Director of Television, Kim Dalton.

It is an accident of history that my own documentary series on Antarctica, Breaking the Ice, which went to air in 1996, was the last series produced in-house by a professional team of editors, sound mixers and engineers. Often it was only the ABC that would tackle controversial topics off-limits to freelancers or commercial production houses due to pressures of advertising or other constraints.

With SBS and the ABC now dependent on buy-ins, Australian viewers are getting much less than they deserve from our public broadcasters. It is not too late to reverse this short-sightedness.

Tim Bowden