The National Ethnic and Multicultural Broadcasters’ Council has won the NEMBC wins the NSW Premiers Multicultural Communications award 2022 award for Best Audio Report.

NEMBC CEO, Russell Anderson says, “This award goes to the full team of people because without the NEMBC members and broadcasters this Award couldn’t have happened”.

“The NEMBC established a radio and emergency news service in 2020 to ensure there was a consistent flow of reliable information for multicultural communities in many different languages so communities can make informed decisions about the pandemic to make a safer and more secure Australian society during the crisis.

The first MNS led to the creation of three multilingual services dedicated to improving in-language news bulletins for CALD communities.

A Victorian MNS started in September 2020 (will go to March 2023), followed by one in NSW in early 2022.

The NEMBC won a Facebook Walkley Journalist grant and is starting a national MNS and Anderson says, “The NEMBC sought to make the best use of ethnic community broadcasters during this crisis as this volunteer sector was vulnerable to disruption caused by COVID-19 pandemic. The MNS has employed over 60 ethnic broadcasters, producers, and news writers, and developed training and mentoring programs.”

“To this day, the Victorian news service continues to be played in over 19 languages across 12 radio stations around 75 times a week reaching at least 26 different cultural groups. Similarly, the NSW service broadcasts 32 news bulletins a week across 11 radio stations.”

“We have produced over 30 detailed Explainers in over 20 languages, so over 600 in-language explainers focused on Emergency warnings, restrictions or critical COVID issues”

 “The MNS service has been able to reach millions of CALD listeners through radio, creation of audiograms, and innovative online strategies.

Sunny Ma, Faten El Dana OAM, Russell Anderson and Michale Zhou