Four Corners

1 9 6 1 - Current (Australia)

Four Corners is Australia's longest running current affairs program, and is often referred to as the "flagship" of the government-funded Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). Four Corners has gone to air continuously on the ABC since 1961 and has established itself as an institution of Australian television and of Australian political life. 

The show was originally conceived as a program with a magazine format offering an informed commentary on the week's events, filling a space on Australian television roughly comparable to the BBCs Panorama (from which it often borrowed material in the 1960s) or the early current affairs programming developed by CBS in the USA. 

The program frequently presents itself as personalized and argumentative, with the narrator generally appearing on-screen, rather than the off-screen "voice-of-God" narration which was the dominant convention in 1950s documentaries. 

Since the mid 70s, the program has developed the format of a 45-minute topical documentary introduced by a studio host, occasionally varied with studio debate. The most frequently cited examples are investigative reports which have had a direct impact on political institutions, such as the 1988 program The Moonlight State which revealed corruption at high levels in the Queensland police force.

Four Corners has consistently been accused of political bias (of a left-wing orientation) and for failing to abide by the ABC's charter which requires "balance" in the coverage of news and current affairs. The program is defended by  ABC management and supporters on the grounds that the importance of open public debate outweighs the damage that might be caused to interested parties and that while the program may be argumentative it is not unfair. 

The program is also a frequent point of reference in debates over government funded broadcasting. Four Corners has never achieved high ratings by the standards of the commercial networks and is often contrasted in content and style to commercial rivals such as Sixty Minutes which is able to claim much wider popular appeal. 

Despite increasing pressure on the ABC to become more commercially oriented, the show has continued to articulate values which are distinct from considerations of popularity: The importance of representing positions and points of view of minorities, the necessity of forcing public institutions to be accountable, and a place for television current affairs to perform an educational role.