Save Our SBS has been inundated with blog comments and emails from people who are supportive of Mary Kostakidis in her stand against the commercialisation of SBS. We publish some of those comments below and invite all bloggers who support Mary Kostakidis to post their own blog below (in preference to emailing us). A petition has been organised independently of www.SaveOurSBS.org and we agree with the petition to support Mary Kostakidis. We suggest you sign that petition as well as our petition, essentially over very similar issues, i.e., the commercialisation at SBS. It is important to sign both petitions:
http://petition.saveoursbs.org
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/marykostakidis/
After you sign both petitions, please return to this post, read on, and post your own supportive comments below.
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What do you think about SBS and the way they treated Mary Kostakidis?
Do you agree with the stand taken by Mary Kostakidis about the commercialisation of SBS, that it has gone too far?
To post your reply comment or read what others have written about this topic and respond to their reply comment, see lower down this screen.
Please submit any material that you write in English only.
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SaveOurSBS
Read some of the comments about Mary Kostakidis that have been posted at https://saveoursbs.org/archives/59 as well as other comments below.
The following are just a few of the comments sent in to http://www.SaveOurSBS.org on 22 August 2007.
Message: As an ABC journalist and radio news reader, I’d like to voice my dismay over the treatment of Mary Kostakidis. I find it disgraceful that the doyenne of Australian newsreaders has been forced out by a coterie of commercial interests, management and in my opinion a pedestrian co-presenter. (A K submitted this comment on 22 August 2007)
Message: What about another petition to bring back Mary Kostakidis. (T B submitted this comment on 22 August 2007)
Message: Here is a message for Mary Kostakidis: Ever since I first arrived in Australia I’ve admired your appealing, affirmative and often humorous communicating style when presenting the news on SBS. I sincerely hope you achieve what you want for yourself and all your eager fans. All the Best.
PS: I do not watch the news when you are not the news reader. (B P submitted this comment on 22 August 2007)
Message: I write in support of Mary Kostakidis. She and Lee Lin Chin are the faces and the souls of SBS World News that we all love and respect. The tragedy is that the SBS Board appointed an executive from TVNZ who apparently appointed Stan Grant. Are they in cahoots? We were doing beautifully with Mary in lead role. New Zealand has the civilised world’s worst television. It is unwatchable, commercialised rubbish. It is an affront to the intelligence of the NZ people. For anything extra, in their wisdom (or lack of it) TVNZ, which is supposed to be a public broadcaster, was sold out to commercialism. There is no educational or enlightening content, no analysis, no world news, just ‘Rush along to the nearest advertiser blahblahblah’. In my opinion, SBS shouldn’t have appointed any executives from TVNZ. Coming to the antipodes from Britain and the BBC and Channel 4 with all their riches of knowledge, information, enlightenment, it had to be Australia with the SBS (particularly Mary) and the ABC rather than the cultural desert of NZ and TVNZ. All you can do there is read books and listen to the radio. We want you back, Mary, to lead the SBS. Tell the SBS executives who came from TVNZ to go home. No wonder there’s distress when a presenter from CNN and an executive from TVNZ muscle in on the sensitively and intelligently run SBS. (V B submitted this comment on 22 August 2007. The original comment was edited by SaveOurSBS. Ed)
Message: Save Mary Kostakidis!!! (S R submitted this comment on 22 August 2007)
Message: Dear SBS, For some time I have been noting with great disappointment the shift of SBS-TV from an erudite independent and factual source of news and world affairs, with an adult and global approach, to a more strident tabloid ‘grab attention and flog it to them’ culture. The hiring of Stan to read (or does he opinionate?) the news is, to me, a stomach-heaving slap. Going so far down market won’t probably gain you much of channel 10’s audience but will certainly lose much of your current and potential viewers. (W W submitted this comment on 22 August 2007. The original comment was edited by SaveOurSBS. Ed)
Message: I am just want to say thanks for getting this website up http://www.SaveOurSBS.org and running and allowing organised opposition to the changes at SBS. We have been committed viewers for many, many years and have always appreciated the professionalism and multicultural approach of SBS. We have also always enjoyed Mary Kostakidis presentation of the news, thoroughly professional and unsensational. Not so now that Stan Grant has joined the news presenting. If he remains and the current commercial approach is unchanged, SBS will have lost another two viewers who are appalled at the commercial appeal to the lowest common denominator. Furthermore, as someone of 59 and my husband 71, we both find it offensive that our age group is considered superfluous to SBS’s viewing requirements and now content is to be aimed at younger viewers. Memo to SBS management – there is a growing, greying population and you ignore us at your peril! Very best wishes to http://www.SaveOurSBS.org for your success in bringing SBS back to its original charter and to an ethical broadcasting station not obsessed with ratings, age groups and ignoring the ethnic population. Warm regards, (M D & B N submitted this comment on 22 August 2007)
The above are just a few of the comments sent in to http://www.SaveOurSBS.org on 22 August 2007. We were not able to publish all the comments received due to the enormous numbers received. The comments above are fairly representative of most of the types of comments received. We prefer that people who want to make a comment about Mary Kostakidis do so, not by emailing us, but rather, by clicking on the Register link in the far right column instead. However please read our Home Page first to find out how to become a blogger and what is involved. Some of the comments above were edited by us for clarity. Ed.
Sign the petition to protect SBS, stop the ads and maintain our multicultural public broadcaster funded fully by government. Click http://petition.saveoursbs.org and wait while you are redirected to the petition server.
Post your blog comments below.
I write to express support for Mary Kostakidis. An intelligent and engaging newsreader, Mary Kostakidis represented the best of SBS. It has been distressing to watch SBS abandoning core brand values in an attempt to woo a younger audience. As a broadcaster it can no longer be relied upon to give intelligent comment; in its expanded format, SBS news has narrowed its focus. Coupled with the decline in news quality from the ABC, increasingly I turn to the competition – the BBC World Service. I am greatly saddened by the loss of such as valuable service as the SBS was.
In my opinion, everything that Shaun Brown the CEO has done to SBS has dumbed it down and made it less watchable and less multicultural. The world news, once such a splendid example of journalism which kept us in touch with serious news around the globe, has come to resemble the satiric version of tabloid trash established by the carpetbagger in “Newsfront”, with constant grinning to camera and to the unnecessary additional reader.
I want to see and hear Mary Kostakidis and Lee Lin Chin and serious presenters like Anton Enus. It is reasonable to train some new journalists, but I do not want to see MK relegated to the rubbish items about cute puppies.
I will not watch the news again in its current format.
The following are just a few of the comments sent in to http://www.SaveOurSBS.org on 23 August 2007.
Message: I would like to remark that the dumbing down of the evening news is the reason I rarely watch it now. (J H submitted this comment on 23 August 2007)
Message: I am totally incensed that the management of SBS permitted the ratings, that is the number of people watching at any one time, to fall. Indicating that the high quality of “different” material available on SBS had been reduced and the product line-up “dumbed down” in an attempt to match commercial television. The news that we, and countless friends of ours, used to watch nightly, has been so altered and destroyed by its commercialisation and slickness that we no longer watch it. Mary should be returned as before as a half hour show, get rid of the ads at half time, if we have to have ads, and preferably rid of them totally, remove Grant to some other show that I will not watch and make the SBS as it was, an entertaining, professional friendly channel for the average multiracial Australian. It is inconceivable that Mary was given such short shrift when it was she, amongst others, who increased the ratings (I C-S submitted this comment on 23 August 2007)
The above are just a few of the comments sent in to http://www.SaveOurSBS.org on 23 August 2007. We were not able to publish all the comments received due to the enormous numbers received. The comments above are fairly representative of most of the types of comments received that day. We prefer that people who want to make a comment about Mary Kostakidis do so, not by emailing us, but rather, by clicking on the Register link in the far right column instead. However please read our Home Page first to find out how to become a blogger and what is involved. Some of the comments above were edited by us for clarity. Ed.
Sign the petition to protect SBS, stop the ads and maintain our multicultural public broadcaster funded fully by government. Click http://petition.saveoursbs.org and wait while you are redirected to the petition server.
Post your blog comments below.
The following are just a few of the comments sent in to http://www.SaveOurSBS.org on 24 August 2007.
Message: BRING BACK MARY. Where is the campaign for Mary – without doubt Australia’s most professional news reader. (L H submitted this comment on 24 August 2007)
EDITORS NOTE TO THE ABOVE QUESTION:
There is a separate petition in support of Mary Kostakidas. That other petition was not written nor organised SaveOurSBS however we agree with the sentiments expressed in that petition to support Mary Kostakidis. If you have not signed our petition, essentially over very similar issues, i.e., the commercialisation at SBS please do so. You may want to sign both petitions
http://petition.saveoursbs.org THIS LINK IS TO THE OFFICIAL “NO ADVERTISEMENTS OR SPONSORSHIP ON SBS.” AMONG OTHER THINGS IT CALLS FOR A CHANGE IN LEGISLATION AND WAS WRITTEN BY US. Please sign it.
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/marykostakidis/ THIS LINK IS TO A PETITION IN SUPPORT OF MARY KOSTAKIDIS. WE DID NOT WRITE IT. IT WAS WRITTEN BY ANOTHER GROUP NOT SaveOurSBS. WE ARE NOT THE ORGANISER NOR THE SPONSOR OF THAT PETITION.
Message: Just noticed a quote or at least an attribution in the Thursday edition of The Australian 23/8 that Shaun Brown stated when saying that it would not be a good idea to merge ABC and SBS because in comparison with the ABC, that SBS was a ‘lean and sleek’ organization. Well, to anyone with a basic understanding of the English tongue, it cant be both. Is this the level of English that we expect from a top media exec, or the bumbling of a used car salesman determined to destroy something that has been brilliant. (J L submitted this comment on 24 August 2007)
The above are just a few of the comments sent in to http://www.SaveOurSBS.org on 24 August 2007. We were not able to publish all the comments received due to the enormous numbers received. The comments above are fairly representative of most of the types of comments received that day. We prefer that people who want to make a comment about Mary Kostakidis do so, not by emailing us, but rather, by clicking on the Register link in the far right column instead. However please read our Home Page first to find out how to become a blogger and what is involved. Some of the comments above were edited by us for clarity. Ed.
Sign the petition to protect SBS, stop the ads and maintain our multicultural public broadcaster funded fully by government. Click http://petition.saveoursbs.org and wait while you are redirected to the petition server.
Post your blog comments below.
We fully support Mary Kostakidis in her stand against the commercialisation of our SBS. Previously our favourite news service, SBS news is now in the dog box as far as we are concerned.
Remove the ads and Grant too. Come back Mary!!
R & C Mann, Gilston, Qld
Mary,
Good luck and best wishes.
Your strength of character is what endeared us to you and is what will see you through this.
With the support of those you love and those you do not even know, regardless of the outcome, your triumph is within yourself.
Congratulations for what you have done for the media and the culture of Australia.
You are missed on our screens but we hold you in our hearts.
Tim Moulton.
23 Nov 2007 SaveOurSBS:
“Mary Kostakidis & SBS settle”
Mary Kostakidis and SBS settled their dispute today (23 November 2007).
The parties reached an amicable agreement out of court. A directions hearing for the case was to be heard in the Federal Court in Sydney earlier today but was not because the two parties reached a last minute agreement .
Details of the settlement are not known.
Long time presenter of SBS World News Australia and once former executive on the original SBS Board, had been in disagreement since August this year. In mid August it was reported that Kostakidis walked out on SBS over an alleged breach of contract.
It was also reported that Kostakidis was unhappy about the commercialisation of SBS. In late 2006 SBS began interrupting programs for commercial breaks and have been accused of operating like more like a commercial broadcaster than and public broadcaster.
Many commentators have said that SBS was foolish to go down the commercial path and risk loosing their most respected and valued presenter. Kostakidis was considered to be the flagship of the station.
Julian Burnside, QC, represented Kostakidis in the dispute.
It is understood that Kostakidis alleged that under the terms of her contract, she was to allowed exercise some editorial control and that SBS breached that condition. She was unhappy about one of her co-presenters, Stan Grant and the dominant commercial flavour of the news. It was reported that at one stage SBS had decided tha all segments should end with a tabloid type story that was easy to digest.
In January 2006, World News Australia changed from a half hour bulletin to a one hour bulletin.
In a statement issued by SBS, the Chairman of the SBS Board, Carla Zampatti, today paid tribute to Ms Kostakidis’ 21 years of service as a news presenter, also pointing out that she had first joined the broadcaster in an
executive role in 1980. "SBS fully acknowledges Mary’s immense contribution over the years," Ms Zampatti said.
Meanwhile Kostakidis said: "I would like SBS viewers to know that I leave with absolute good will towards the organisation and wish it all the best. It has been a privilege and an honour to front the flagship news program and to speak to a discerning audience that values public broadcasting."
[Save Our SBS interprets that last comment to mean, if you value public broadcasting it will now be up to others to continue the battle to save SBS from it commercialisation approach and stop the ads].
The issue of interrupting programs for advertisements is the reason that Save Our SBS http://www.SaveOurSBS.org formed. That issue will not die as, like Kostakidis, we too value public broadcasting and do not want to see our multicultural broadcaster operate as a pseudo commercial network.
Sign the
petition to
protect SBS, stop the ads and maintain our multicultural public
broadcaster funded fully by government. Click
http://petition.saveoursbs.org and wait while you are redirected to
the petition server.
Read some past blog about Mary Kostakidis
You can track the development of this
and
story and read other blog comments
here
here too.