Mary Kostakidis

Sydney Morning Herald

Monday June 9, 2008

Amy De Lore

MARY Kostakidis took an unorthodox path into journalism but established herself as one of Australia's most respected news anchors before leaving her long-time employer SBS in controversial circumstances late last year.

Born in Greece, Kostakidis came to Australia with her parents when she was two and grew up in a Sydney household where political discussion was frequent and robust.

Kostakidis studied at the University of Sydney and in Greece before falling into a mixed bag of working roles, including court interpreter, university tutor and government research officer.

She was one of the founding managers at SBS, joining the fledgling station in 1980 to develop the subtitling unit. She also became responsible for censorship and program classification.

In 1986, Kostakidis began newsreading, presenting weekend bulletins, and two years later was offered the job of chief newsreader.

Kostakidis was often held up as a role model in an industry where relatively few women over 40 manage to remain in important on-air positions.

"My appointment was significant because I was the first woman appointed to a national bulletin," Kostakidis, now 54, said in an interview marking her 10th anniversary as anchor.

As well as presenting the news, she was involved in its production and her contract stipulated a degree of editorial control over the nightly bulletin.

She remained the sole evening newsreader for two decades until co-reader Stan Grant joined her at the desk in a format change in 2007. Kostakidis left seven months later, after 27 years with the station, claiming her seniority and editorial control had been undermined and changes to the bulletin, including the introduction of advertising, had lowered its standards. She sued SBS for breach of contract, settling out of court in November.

Kostakidis has used her journalistic profile to promote charities, community groups and social-justice issues.