SBS has launched live interpreting of the daily NSW Government COVID-19 press conference in languages other than English, to provide communities with access to the latest information and critical health messages.
The national-first initiative provides real-time interpreting of the press conferences in Arabic and Vietnamese, streamed live every day on the SBS Arabic24 and SBS Vietnamese Facebook pages, SBS Radio (for Arabic on SBS Arabic24), with additional languages being introduced including Mandarin and Assyrian shortly.
SBS managing director James Taylor (pictured) said SBS was proud to be continuing to provide communities with essential information and support through the pandemic with this latest initiative.
“SBS is uniquely placed to reach and engage those who speak a language other than English, and we are pleased to be working with the NSW Government to deliver this important multilingual service at a time when access to reliable information and urgent health and safety updates is so critical,” Taylor said.
“This expands on SBS’s ongoing work providing essential support for diverse communities during the pandemic, delivering trusted, independent and accurate information in more than 60 languages across our multiplatform services.”
“As the country responds to the impacts of the latest COVID-19 outbreaks and the national vaccination rollout continues, SBS is proud to be the place for multicultural and First Nations communities to access vital news and resources, to ensure all Australians receive the information they need to protect themselves and their communities.”
The initiative, launched as a pilot program to support the dissemination of critical information and updates to culturally and linguistically diverse communities, shows the live video stream of the daily NSW Government press conference but with in-language interpretation as the primary audio.
Initial streams of the service in recent days have received significant engagement from communities.
Natalie Ward, the NSW Minister for Multiculturalism said that “the NSW government is exploring every avenue to ensure out public health messages are reaching our culturally and linguistically diverse communities.”
“We see SBS and all our multicultural community media outlets as critical partners”
Minister for Digital and Customer Service, Victor Doniello, said the NSW Government would also be promoting the live feed over its social media.
He said, “the service will also be shared by other multicultural and community broadcasters for wider dissemination.”
“It’s critically important we reach as many people as possible so we can work together to help keep each other safe.”
The program builds on SBS’s ongoing work in providing essential support to keep communities informed and safe through its range of multilingual services and resources, focused on sharing vital information that they may not otherwise be able to access – in addition to comprehensive coverage in English across SBS News and current affairs.
SBS’s multilingual services include dedicated daily COVID-19 updates produced by all SBS Radio language services for their communities, in addition to regular programming.
SBS has also introduced targeted updates for communities impacted by the lockdown of Local Government Areas, including the latest news and restrictions, shared on social media.
In March 2020, SBS launched the SBS Multilingual Coronavirus Portal, in more than 60 languages, to curate all SBS’s digital COVID-19 content in one, easily shareable destination: sbs.com.au/coronavirus.
Since then, there have been more than eight million unique visitors accessing SBS’s COVID-19 content across our in-language digital offering, as SBS has continued to provide articles, podcasts, and videos about outbreaks, vaccinations, and information on how to keep well.
