Kevin Rudd to be first guest on Mandarin News Australia
SBS will unveil its Mandarin news program with an interview with Mandarin speaking foreign minister Kevin Rudd.
The announcement:
The Hon Kevin Rudd MP, Minister for Foreign Affairs, will be the first guest interviewed on Mandarin News Australia, SBS’s new Mandarin television news program, launching on 24 November 2010. Kevin Rudd will be discussing Australian and Chinese trade and economic relations with Zhou Li, presenter of Mandarin News Australia. Minister Rudd is fluent in Mandarin and served in Beijing as a cadet diplomat in the 1980s, with the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs.
Mandarin News Australia is Australia’s first and only free to air, locally produced inlanguage Mandarin news service. SBS’s new program will deliver high quality and impartial Chinese Australian news stories, catering for the local community, with a broad national appeal. The program will be subtitled in English, so it can be understood by all Australians.
“This new program will deliver relevant news and current affairs to one of Australia’s largest language communities,” Dirk Anthony, Director of Audio and Language Content, said.
The weekly TV news and current affairs program will cover stories for Chinese Australians, including a brief wrap of national and international headline news, coverage of major local Chinese arts, cultural, community and sports events, profile pieces on successful Chinese Australian business people, identities and inspiring locals, major stories from China, and stories on visiting Chinese dignitaries and artists.
The half hour service will be broadcast on SBS TWO each Wednesday at 5.30pm. It will be repeated on SBS ONE each Sunday at 6:35am. Features from the program may also be viewed before television broadcast at the online Chinese Virtual Community Centre (sbs.com.au/chinese).
Source: SBS press release
