Welcome each and every one of you. You are all important and dear to our hearts.
Thank you for joining me at this Community ceremony to honour a number of Chinese Australian media personalities.
I do this in order to publicly recognise their dedication to journalism and to the service to the Chinese Australian Community.
The recipients are :
Mr Daniel Tong, Editor in Chief of the Australian Chinese Daily, He has served over 35years,
Mr Jack Lin, the General Manager of the Daily Chinese Herald, he has served for over 26 years and still going strong;
Ms Lily Zhou, better known as lily, has served in the media industry for the past 20 years’ but as director of the SBS radio Mandarin, for the past 10 years.
Finally Simon Ko, 26 years of service, retired, former CEO of Singtao Daily;
These journalists are well respected by the Chinese Australian community, serving four of the most widely read and listened to media organisations in Australia.
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The success of Chinese media is due in no small part to the hard-work of many journalists in this industry.
Their contributions and achievements should and must be recognized.
Like many of their sister Multicultural media outlets, Chinese media has played a very important role in community service and in connecting the Chinese communities to mainstream society by building bridges between our Australian Multicultural society and between Australia and China.
Chinese media is an important part of Australian multiculturalism, and they deserve greater attention from governments and mainstream society.
In Australia we have various media awards such as the Walkely awards, the Kennedy Awards and others but Ethnic media journalists are rarely if ever recognised.
This is why in 2012 I established the Multicultural Media Awards recognising ethnic journalists and their proprietors for their dedication and their professionalism.
I was delighted when in 2013 the O’Farrell government took up my initiative and called it the Premiers Multicultural Media Awards. I was honoured that the government has made my initiative mainstream.
I hope that more and more of our ethnic journalists are recognised for the tremendous work that they do in keeping us informed of news and views in Australia and overseas.
I hope to continue such recognition into the future, because outstanding media personalities should be commended and encouraged.
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In doing this, we now recognise the history of Chinese media in Australia.
Here I thank UTS, ACRI, for their 2016 report investigating the history of Chinese media in Australia, going back all the way to the gold rush era.
Many of us would not have known the following facts:
• The Chinese Advertiser is considered to be the earliest bilingual Chinese-English newspaper in Australia. It emerged during the Gold Rush of the 1850s and was published by Robert Bell in Ballarat, Victoria, with a weekly circulation of 400 copies.
• The first Chinese-language national newspaper, the Chinese Australian Herald (CAH), appeared in 1894; the second, the Tung Wah News, came along in 1898; while the third, Chinese Republic News, emerged in 1913.
• The end of the 19th century saw the creation of various other Chinese-language trade-oriented and community-based publications, making the Chinese press the largest foreign-language media presence in Australia at the time.
Who would have known this?
Even during the first two decades of the White Australia policy saw the publication of a few republican newspapers—such as the Chinese Times—in support of the Nationalist Kuo Min Tang (KMT) in China.
• On the whole, however, this inhospitable environment led to a dwindling of the Chinese press in Australia.
What happened After White Australia?
• Following the abolition of the White Australia policy in 1974 the Chinese-speaking population in Australia began to grow again, largely due to the arrival of Indo-Chinese refugees and business migrants from Hong Kong and Taiwan.
• This growth led to a plethora of Chinese media outlets that still exist to this day, including, in the print media sector, Singtao Daily, Australian Chinese, the Daily Chinese Herald and The Independence Daily.
• Later arrivals included, in the radio sector, 2AC and 2CR in Sydney, both broadcasting in Mandarin and Cantonese, and in the television sector, TVB Australia and SBS.
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• Interestingly, prior to 1996, there was not a single Chinese newspaper in Australia that was owned or controlled by PRC migrants. But after 1997, and particularly since President Jiang Zemin’s visit to Australia, close collaborations between Chinese migrant media in Australia and domestic media started in earnest.
Online Chinese media in the 2010s
• A number of Chinese-language websites have begun to appear such as SydneyToday.com along with many others.
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China’s state media made significant inroads into Australia’s media landscape including major state media organisations such as Xinhua and People’s Daily
And of course the arrival of Wechat.
I won’t go into these media outlets as we would need a forum on its own. Suffice to say that Chinese Australian Media is alive and well but many will face significant challenges as more and more Chinese Australians and Chinese in the diaspora will opt for online sadly, to the detriment of traditional print and perhaps radio.
Now, it gives me great pleasure to commence our proceedings for the day by calling on one of our leading statesmen Mr Frank Zhou to say a few words before we commence our award presentations.
Dr. Zhou Guangming, OAM, or Frank as many of us know him, needs no introduction. He is respected right across the Chinese community as well as all the people who have nad any dealings with him.
Today, He honours us all with his presence and with a few words.
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Our first Award recipient is Mr Daniel Tong.
Mr Daniel Tong has worked in the Media industry for over 35 years in Australia and Hong Kong.
Mr Tong graduated with a Bachelor of Arts, majoring in journalism from the National Chengchi University in Taiwan in 1982.
After graduating, Mr Tong returned to Hong Kong as a reporter before migrating to Australia in 1989 and joining Sing Tao newspaper in Sydney.
He was recruited by the Australian Chinese Daily in 1996 as the deputy Chief editor before becoming its chief Editor in 2010.
Mr Tong personally understands the community he serves. I go to many Chinese community functions but I reckon he goes to many more.
Daniel is a tireless worker for the community and a real professional.
Under his leadership, the Australian Chinese Daily has provided a wealth of information to a growing number of Chinese migrants, students and all who needed to work with our Chinese Australian Community.
It is an honour for me to be presenting him with this certificate of recognition.
Please join me in welcoming Mr Daniel Tong to receive his certificate and say a few words.
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Our next recipient is Zhou Li (Lili)
Better known as lily.
Lili is the host and executive producer of SBS Chinese program. She was the host of the very first English-Chinese bilingual TV program, SBS Mandarin News.
With more than 20 years of international experience working in the media industry, Lili is able to bring the highest quality of service and the most diverse contents to Australian local audiences
Under the direction of SBS’s leadership team, Lily has led the SBS Chinese team to a series of achievements and thus making tremendous contribution towards Australian multiculturalism.
In 2011, along with her team Lili created “My Home”, the very first Chinese language news hub of SBS that allow the Chinese audience to view TV programs, radio shows and web contents in language.
In the same year, Lili and her team produced the SBS Mandarin News Australia. I am informed its the very first Chinese-English Bilingual news program in the history of Australian public media.
Apart from her professionalism as a journalist, Lili’s Chinese background also helped her to possess cultural awareness of her audience.
I take great pride in presenting her with this certificate of recognition.
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Mr Jack Lin
In 1993 Mr Lin begun as Journalist at the Daily Chinese Herald. Mr Jack Lin, became the General Manager of the Daily Chinese Herald in 2002 and in 2017 he became the General Manager of the 1688 Media Group.
With 26 years in the media industry Mr Jack Lin has been a long standing, mainstream media personality. As representative of the Chinese Australian media community he is one of the oldest, well connected members with roots in the People's Republic of China.
He is a very active community leader. He has promoted Australia China bilateral relationship on both state and federal levels and has worked hard in promoting the growth of Chinese Australian community.
Please join me in welcoming Mr Jack Lin.
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Final recipient is Mr Simon Ko.
After studying in the United States, Simon Ko began his media career at a Hong Kong television station before moving into advertising with the Hong Kong metro transport company.
His service to Sing Tao Daily started in 1980, when he joined the Hong Kong head office as executive director. His job encompassed such non-media sectors as retail developments, film companies and hotels.
On joining the Sydney office of Sing Tao Daily in 1988, he oversaw the newspaper’s transformation into one of the largest Chinese-language newspaper in Australia.
Mr Ko and his newspaper have been big contributors to charity work in Australian communities and overseas, particularly to disaster relief through the Red Cross.
Mr Ko is currently overseas and unfortunately is unable to be with us to receive his certificate but his friend Mr James Tong will receive it on his behalf.
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Conclusion with group photo.
Thank you all
Thanks to John Zhang and Mr Hong.
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