Ethnic Media gather at the Community Relations Commission

Representatives of the ethnic media at the MediaLink Publishers forum at the CRC head Office in Sydney

Mr Alun Probert, Manager, Strategic Communications of the Department of Commerce addresses editors and publishers of the ethnic media

16 June 2009

Thirty editorial and publishing staff of Sydney ethnic newspapers met with the Community Relations Commission today to talk about the MediaLink service and the government's regulations on advertising.

MediaLink is an on-line subscription service operated by the CRC which delivers same-day reviews of the content of non-English newspapers published around Australia

The Chair of the Commission, Stepan Kerkyasharian, gave a statistical breakdown of the content of the print media in various languages and gave feedback from the on-line subscribers about the content in which they are most interested.

"Our subscribers who cannot read your newspapers really want to know the views of your language communities about all kinds of public issues."

"MediaLink extends the audience for your views and editorials to anyone who wishes to subscribe. This includes the Premier's Office and various Government agencies," he told the participants.

The forum was also addressed by Mr Alun Probert, Manager, Strategic Communications of the Department of Commerce, who outlined the implementation of the government's current polices on advertising.

He gave editors and publishers some practical advice on how to communicate directly with the Government Advertising Office (in the Department of Commerce) and how to put forward their ideas for advertising government programmes to their language communities.