Regarding the presence of minority and alternative media, there is no major change in the last decade, and the Australian media system performs fairly well, as noted by Josephi (2011) in the last MDM survey. Australia’s second public broadcaster, the Special Broadcasting Service (SBS), is unique in that its radio and television services are broadcast in more languages than on any other network in the world. The television programmes on its first channel in non-English languages – comprising over half their schedule – have SBS-produced English-language subtitles. SBS’s charter is “to provide multilingual and multicultural radio and television services that inform, educate and entertain all Australians and, in doing so, reflect Australia’s multicultural society” (SBS, 2010).
SBS television broadcasts in 23 languages, and SBS radio broadcasts in 68 languages – both include news programmes. One of SBS’s digital channels is almost entirely devoted to news programmes taken from stations around the world.
Australia’s multiculturalism is equally reflected in the print sector. In New South Wales, papers are available in 30 different languages, including seven in Arabic, five in Chinese, four in Korean and Turkish, and three Afghan and Iranian papers. The other states do not offer quite the same spread. Victoria offers papers in 17 different languages, with six in Chinese, and four each in Greek and Indian. Queensland, Western Australia, and South Australia only have four, three, and two papers, respectively, in non- English languages. The frequency of publication varies from bi-weekly to weekly – (the most common form) to fortnightly, and in some cases, monthly (Josephi, 2011).
