YEREVAN, MARCH 18, ARMENPRESS: Australia's multicultural and multilingual broadcaster has decided to cut the broadcast hours of the Armenian Language Radio program, and move the shortened version to a non-prime time slot on digital radio.  As reports Armenpress referring to The Armenian National Committee of Australia (ANC Australia) official website,  ANC Australia's organised online petitions calling on SBS (Special Broadcasting Service) to reverse this decision, which is insulting to the Armenian-Australian community and crippling to a very important radio resource.

''The recent decision by the SBS to cut the broadcast hours of the Armenian language program, and move the shortened version to a new digital format. This will severely restrict the number of listeners, many of whom are of a generation largely without digital radio access or Internet podcast know-how. 

The rationale behind your decision to cut the Armenian language program from three hours to one hour per week was based on the most recent Australian Census. The Census does not provide a true reflection of the Armenian community in Australia as it does not provide "Armenian" as an ethnicity choice, requiring individuals to manually input this information.

This arbitrary decision will have a negative impact on loyal community listeners, especially due to the new time slot allocated for the Armenian language program. The new hours between 17:00 to 18:00 are ill conceived and the move away from prime time is a detriment to the listening audience. This decision, coupled with the lack of an Armenian language television program in Australia, will further restrict the ability for local and international news to be broadcast in Armenian.

SBS has failed to take into account the needs of the Armenian-Australian community when making its decision in this regard. We call on the SBS to immediately reverse its illogical decision and restore the Armenian language program back to a longer program in a prime-time slot," said in the petition.