SBS is providing real-time, live interpreting in multiple languages of the Victorian and NSW daily COVID-19 press conferences.
How to watch the NSW press conference in your language:
– Watch the daily 11am NSW press conference on television with live interpreting in Arabic on SBS TV, and in Vietnamese on SBS VICELAND.
– These and other key languages are streamed live on SBS On Demand.
– Daily live interpreting is also available via SBS Facebook pages: SBS Arabic24, SBS Assyrian, SBS Cantonese, SBS Khmer, SBS Mandarin, and SBS Vietnamese.
– The Arabic interpreting can be heard on SBS Radio, online and via the SBS Radio app
How to watch the Victoria press conference in your language:
– Watch daily COVID-19 press conferences with interpreting via SBS Facebook pages, in Arabic, Somali and Urdu.
– Catch-up service via SBS On Demand.
National Indigenous Television (NITV) also provides critical updates on the impact of COVID-19 and specific issues facing Indigenous Australians, including those living in remote communities, and delivers tailored health and safety messages such as this community service announcement featuring Nana from the NITV animated children’s series Little J and Big Cuz, encouraging the community to get vaccinated.
Across the network, SBS is helping multicultural communities stay up-to-date with the latest COVID-19 information in languages other than English with live broadcasts of the NSW Government COVID-19 updates on television and SBS On Demand.
SBS Managing Director, James Taylor, said SBS was continuing to focus on ways it can respond to and meet the diverse needs of multicultural communities during the pandemic.
“It’s critical that vital health messages and information that can keep communities safe is reaching all Australians. SBS is continuing to provide timely and trusted COVID-19 news and resources in English and in more than 60 languages across our multiplatform services, to assist people in understanding important updates in their preferred language, counter misinformation, and support communities through the pandemic.
“As events unfold and impact communities in different ways, SBS is continuing to adapt and extend the work that we do. Providing live broadcasts in-language across more platforms through this latest service is just another way that we can ensure communities have access to the information they need, when they need it most,” Taylor said.
The 11am daily update is broadcast on SBS in NSW with live interpreting in Arabic on SBS and in Vietnamese on SBS VICELAND. It is also streamed nationally via SBS On Demand with real-time interpreting in Assyrian, Cantonese, Khmer and Mandarin, as well as Arabic and Vietnamese.
Additionally, this service is delivered by SBS on social media for key language groups, following the launch of a national-first program in partnership with the NSW Government last month. Since SBS began these live translations, they have been viewed more than 500,000 times across platforms, comprising more than 1.6 million viewing minutes.
These newly announced television broadcasts complement SBS’s ongoing and comprehensive coverage of the impacts of COVID-19 locally and around the world across the network, alongside a growing range of multilingual resources providing essential information to Australia’s culturally and linguistically diverse communities.
David Hua, Director of Audio and Language Content at SBS, said: “We know that in order to effectively support communities at this time of need, we need to continue to explore and implement different ways to keep everyone informed with accurate and accessible information which reflects the perspectives of communities, and also shares their stories.
“SBS is committed to informing Australia’s multilingual communities about the latest coronavirus developments. Our unique ability to reach and connect with these audiences is built on SBS’s unrivalled connections with the communities we serve, and that we are intrinsically a part of. This makes SBS an essential tool in Australia’s continued fight against COVID-19.”
The SBS Multilingual Coronavirus Portal, launched in March 2020, continues to curate SBS’s digital COVID-19 content in one, easily shareable destination in more than 60 languages at sbs.com.au/coronavirus