The bad news SBS was never going to report – about itself.
A confidential poll of staff at Australia’s junior public broadcaster, SBS, has painted a bleak picture of their faith in the corporation’s management. The survey measuring employee engagement found fewer than half the 614 staff polled thought SBS performed well in managing performance, promotion, innovation and communication. In some work areas, satisfaction was less than a quarter on individual issues. The workplace survey conducted in 2009 was based on methodology by the New Zealand-based pollsters JRA, following a … Read entire article »
Filed under: Media
SBS’s lost decade – an accident or vandalism?
When retiring SBS Chair Carla Zampatti steps up to receive the plaudits of employees at the broadcaster’s end-of-year party tomorrow night[1], it will mark the end of perhaps the most destructive era in the multicultural broadcaster’s 34-year history. Many fine words will be spoken, reams of media releases praising her time at the helm will be distributed — but nothing will be able to disguise the fact that, on balance, her tenure has been a flop. While the broadcaster … Read entire article »
Who let the racist cats out of the bag?
Attacks on Indian students in Australia — and the protests they have sparked — have given the nation another of its periodic chances to examine its credentials as a friendly, peace-loving, multicultural society. This happens every couple of years, usually prompted by dramatic headlines which most recently have ranged from anti-Lebanese riots in Cronulla to increased arrivals of boatpeople. This time the issue revolves around racism: Is Australia a racist nation or just home to a … Read entire article »
Can the ethnic lobby save Australia’s multicultural broadcaster?
Everyone was very polite at a senate estimates hearing in Canberra whenever talk got near a possible merger between the ABC and SBS. ABC managing director Mark Scott declared that his organisation was “committed to working with SBS to identify joint efficiency savings around our distribution and transmission”. His SBS counterpart Shaun Brown boasted that this was his idea from the 2020 summit and he wanted to “fully explore” ways to “benefit both broadcasters”. Their Minister, Senator Conroy, … Read entire article »
Who will blink first?
As the war of wills between the military and the media in Fiji intensifies, the growing question is: Who will blink first? So far, Commodore Frank Bainimarama’s army-backed regime is clearly in front. It has imposed strict censorship of local media, ejected foreign correspondents, closed down ABC re-transmitters and threatened internet usage. These measures have been rigorously enforced by the army, with military censors in newsrooms and armed soldiers overseeing the arrest and questioning of local and foreign journalists. Bainimarama … Read entire article »
Filed under: Journalism, Media
Who is killing SBS?
To say The SBS Story is hagiographic might be to overstate the matter — but not by much. Part-funded by the Australian Research Council as part of a linkage project with SBS, this book veers between genuine independent academic critique and the kind of slick corporate giveaway that could easily have been commissioned by SBS’s own marketing department. This is a shame for readers wanting to know why Mary Kostakidis really resigned, why David Stratton and … Read entire article »
Why media freedom is important to us all
It is a sad truth of journalism that we are often liked best when we are at our worst, and disliked most when we are at our best. Or, at least, that seems to be so in the often rocky relationship between the media and those in authority, whether in government or big business. Very few governments like a free and unrestrained media. They dislike us when we criticise their policies or performance, they despise us … Read entire article »
Filed under: Journalism, Media
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