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Mary Kostakidis, host and speaker...
Mary Kostakidis has been world news presenter at SBS for fifteen years. A member of the management team that set up the network, Mary developed the Subtitling Unit, including its policy, training program and recruitment of top linguists. As Director of Program Preparation, she was responsible for developing and implementing the station's censorship and classification policy, and was involved in program purchasing. Mary then moved on to developing the network's policy for programming for children.
In February 1994, as well as being the world news presenter, Mary Kostakidis took on a new role as the host of The Talk Show, a weekly interview and discussion program which explored people or issues of interest.
Mary holds a BA from the University of Sydney where she studied French, German, Italian, Modern Greek and Philosophy. After completing a Dip.Ed, she was awarded a post graduate scholarship by the University of Salonica in Greece. As an under graduate, she was awarded first prize for her speech "Second Generation Migrants - An Identity Crisis" by NSW University. She also founded the Sydney University Greek Society and was its first President.
Before joining SBS Mary Kostakidis was an editor at the Ethnic Affairs Commission of NSW. Prior to that, she had worked as a tutor at Sydney University, a research officer for the departments of Health and Youth and Community Services, and a court interpreter. She has also worked for ABC Radio News and has hosted programs on ABC Radio.
Mary Kostakidis' other activities reflect a long standing interest in issues of social justice. She has been a member of the Drug and Alcohol Council, was a councillor on the Constitutional Centenary Foundation, and she was appointed by the Prime Minister to the Republic Advisory Committee. She has also served on the Order of Australia Honours Committee, and the Sydney Olympic Cultural Organising Committee (SOCOG) and was a member of the Breast Cancer Council Advisory Committee. In August 1997 Mary was appointed to the Advertising Standards Board. She is also a founding member of the James Joyce Foundation.
Mary Kostakidis' public speaking covers a broad range of interests including women, pluralism, education, the nature of truth and objectivity, and the media. "Poets and storytellers like Homer, Dante and Shakespeare may have been the chroniclers of culture and the human imagination in the past", says Mary, "but today it is television that has the strongest influence on our imaginative lives and in shaping our perception of reality."
Mary Kostakidis has moderated panel discussions on a diverse range of issues for various Government departments and non-government organisations. These include a five city link-up (four Australian cities and Washington) at an investors breakfast for Foreign Affairs and Trade, with speakers and questions from the audience in each city, moderated by Mary. Most recently Mary moderated a panel discussion at the largest television conference in the world in Banff Canada on Globalisation in Broadcasting. Panel Members included the British Minister for Trade and the Controller of the BBC as well as other leading world figures in television.
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