(TibetanReview.net, Sep24, 2017) – Tibetan will be among seven new languages to be added to the services of Australia’s top radio broadcast channel, the SBS radio. The channel will start broadcasting in Tibetan on Nov 20 this year, said an announcement by the SBS Radio Services on its official website.
The other new language services are Telugu, Karen, Hakha Chin, Rohingya, Mongolian and Kirundi (Rundi).
SBS said it had introduced changes to its radio services in order to meet the needs of multicultural Australia and to better reflect the country’s increasingly diverse society. It took into account the results of the latest Census survey and audience listening habits.
The announcement said the population of a language group, English language proficiency, recentness of arrival, age and household resources were all considered, along with any discrimination or vilification of a particular group in Australia, in determining the addition of the new language services.
Australia’s latest census revealed that there were around 4.87 million non-English speaking people in the country. The final selection criteria for the addition of new services included ‘large groups’, referring to language groups with population more than 25,000 people as well as High Needs Languages Criteria that considered groups with less than 1000 population.
Also considered for inclusion were sizeable ethnic community if its needs were significant but not adequately captured by the other criteria and population of a language group through Australia’s Humanitarian Programme.