"If Australia is to remain a harmonious society where hostile intercultural conflict is rare, we need social and institutional arrangements that promote not just social inclusion, but also a wholehearted recognition of diversity as an intrinsic feature of Australian national identity."

Excellent article. I agree totally that SBS and its original charter is as much needed and as relevant today as it ever was.

Cutting Edge is one of the best documentary shows on Australian television, Dateline and Insight are reliably high standard shows and there are many excellent one-off screenings, none of which are ever likely to appear on commercial channels. SBS News is the only truly global news coverage we have and to my mind is superior even to that of the ABC.

For me though, SBS has definitely been spoilt with the introduction of advertising, especially now that programs are being interrupted. We need to maintain a high level of government funding for SBS. Not only is it an investment in the ability of all Australians to gain a better understanding of the wider world, but also, as the authors point out, in creating an Australian society which is more inclusive, tolerant and harmonious.

Spikey
I'm with you.I would add.
My TV (in my cubby hole) rarely ventures beyond SBS/ABC. Popular isn't necessarily best by any sensible measure.
I would also dispute that sampling(ratings) representative and are anything more than an indication. Certainly not one I would want to stake Aunty and her less corseted sister's futures on.

It seems to me that both ABC and SBS are simply a recognition that
Football, meat pies and inane soaps and political monocularism are no longer (aka 1950's god, queen, business interests and jingoism) Australian reality in the 21st century

All attempts to hobble/eliminate either are ultimately about the acquisition and maintenance of political power and nothing to do with fair representation or reality.

As a nation we have survived by virtue of our non conformity yet all powers want us to conform to some outdated stereotypical image.

Collective government supply services for the minorities(?), like it or not it is the minority that define/advance our boundaries and therefore our collective futures.

"Australian Top gear" (in my opinion is an ideological retrograde step) is a symptomatic mistake like the Australian copy of 'Kumars at 42'. By commercial ratings obsessed media gnomes assuming that we need to dumb everything down to meet'our' Aussie audience.

Media must be more than 'more of the same me too band wagon' for profit or ‘1984’ is only temporally wrong.

If we rely on capitalism for our inspiration God(s) help us all

" ... All attempts to hobble/eliminate either are ultimately about the acquisition and maintenance of political power and nothing to do with fair representation or reality. ... "

Some insightful comments by *eXAMINATOr* i.m.o.

Still, it often disgusts me what a grossly wasted resource SBS is.

Let me couch my argument here a tad by saying, I have not been to a single place on this planet, from whose peoples, languages and cultures I have not learned immensely.

Having being able to speak 3 languages at various times at a high intermediate lvl, with a handful of specialised areas of vocab, one of the things that most amazes me is that all of the languages that I have been exposed too each have a unique mechanism of forming meaning by way of different thought form cohesion.

Now, this is ever so stimulating to the grey matter and offers wonderful insight into other peoples and their cultures and in this regard, those people who prattle out this party line about why we can't have translated news+shows should be just summarily sacked and replaced with more "enlightened" individuals.

In this regard, SBS is not inclusive at all. When the Indo is on, only Indo speakers can understand, when the Ruskies or the Original Aussies, only them. No one likes to be left out from a funny joke and why shld we b? It even amazes me that we are having this conversation but however ... ;-)

If u av 10 news shows each day for 30 mins, it takes no more than 35 mins to do the translation + admin no more than 1 hr @ say $AU100 is $AU1000 a day by 6 days is $AU6000 a week on contract or $AU5000 on salary, for the sake of argument. Now, how many poxy little ads to U need to charge some fatcat to pay for that? Anymore than 1? And what is the reward? 1/2

A new wealth of entertainment and information that most Ozzies are barely aware of, rich and stimulating and beneficial for the economy when poppets are dispatched to trade shows etc etc.

And I have met so few people who haven't gone:
OOHOHHHOHHH REEEALLLLYYY? Is that what it means? IS that what they're going on about? Truly I would have never thought?

And what a wonderful tool to keep the bastardios in Canberra honest and conversely, when U hear some of the less than ordinary stuff consider, mmmm, yes whilst far from perfect we are very lucky to be Ozzies.

In this way all Australians can become to gain a greater sense of inclusiveness with the rest of the big global family, and also develope a more mature "palette" simply by being exposed to newness.

P.S.
By translating I DO NOT mean turn it into Australiana and thereby lose the benefit of the unique cohesion.

Before we get warm and gushy about SBS, we need to revisit some of its major faults, which I wrote about in www.crikey.com.au

Do we really need SBS?

By Sasha Uzunov

Does Australia really need to be serviced by two public broadcasters? Sasha Uzunov investigates the audience of SBS, 25 years on:

Date: 9 June 2005

The ABC's Chairman Donald Macdonald recently gave an elegant speech at the National Press Club in Canberra about where the public broadcaster was heading. Afterwards, as he fielded questions, reporters once again honed in on the thorny issue of whether the second public broadcaster, Special Broadcasting Service (SBS), should exist.

read more... http://wanews.org/news/sbs.htm

cheers
Sasha Uzunov
freelance photo journalist

No joy with the link Sasha, is it short enough to paraphrase?

If your specialty is news and current affairs you would have every reason to support this side to SBS. If you're a paparazzi I could understand your distaste about government funding for intelligent broadcasting. Is it, as you say, a thorny issue?