Dateline (Australian TV series)

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Host George Negus on the Dateline set on 28 February 2007

Dateline is a television current affairs program aired on the Special Broadcasting Service (SBS) in Australia. Since its debut in 1984, it has focused largely on international events, often in developing or warring nations. Since 2000, Dateline reporters have travelled by themselves without a camera crew or sound engineers. It remains the longest-running international current affairs program in Australia.

George Negus has hosted the program since 2005, replacing journalist, Mark Davis, who in his period between 2003-04 gained several nominations for the Walkley Awards. Davis still serves the programme as video journalist, dealing primarily with South Pacific affairs. He was preceded in the host's chair by "the perfumed steamroller" Jana Wendt, and Pria Viswalingam.

1 History
2 Format
3 References
4 External links

[edit] History

Dateline has been involved in many major events around the world, including releasing a story on 20 February 2002, on suspected treason perpetrated by Morgan Tsvangirai in Zimbabwe.^[1] He was later acquitted by the High Court of Zimbabwe, but brought a lawsuit against Dateline for alleged defamation. ^[2]

Since its conception, the media program has covered areas of international current affairs, such as environmental policies, technological innovations' political impacts (such as electric cars in the USA), and general political events such as the Iraq War and violence in East Timor (2006).

The long-running current affairs program has also accumulated many awards over its lifetime, including Walkley Awards, Logie Awards, and UN Media Peace Awards, which is awarded by the United Nations Association, an organization not affiliated with the United Nations Organization. This has been a result of high-quality reporting from journalists such as Mark Davis, David O'Shea and previously, Matthew Carney, who is now with ABC.

In 2003, the program had a focus on the Pacific island nations, which the incoming SBS Head of Television Shaun Brown then broadened to be more globally inclusive^[3]. He also made the program less focused on armed conflict.

[edit] Format

Dateline uses a blend of investigative stories from reporters all over the world and interview segments in the studio (where the program is filmed) directed by the host and often using satellite linkups to communicate with guests.