Terramed Plus

Algiers, 3-4 June 2013
EPTV Headquarters,

Representatives from television channels participating in Terramed Plus met in Algiers with Algerian television EPTV on June 3 and 4. The two-day workshop was an opportunity to review the project's achievements and reflect on the ways to ensure its sustainability.
The workshop's opening was attended by the director-general of Algerian Television, Tewfik Khelladi, the secretary general of the Permanent Conference of Mediterranean Audiovisual Operators (COPEAM) Pier Luigi Malesani, and other representatives from partner television channels supporting the project.

Mr. Khelladi explained that "This flagship project aims to generate, expand and maintain an audience in order to give more visibility to audiovisual products on both sides of the Mediterranean Sea". While affirming his hope that new links, new conquests, and other progresses will be made starting from the knowledge piled on in these years of common work, Mr. Khelladi called on COPEAM to act with "force" to "reduce the gap between the media on both sides of the Mediterranean and increase exchanges on the basis of fairness and mutual respect".

Participants highlighted technical challenges to the project's development, focusing on the translation of subtitles and metadata from the video catalogue by a team of technicians and translators at Algeria's EPTV. Two experts in the creation and development of VOD platforms – Valerio Caruso, project director at the Euromed Audiovisual III programme's monitoring unit and Tareq Abu-Lughod who created Arabic platform Istikana.com – kick-started reflection on possible future directions for the project's video-on-demand platform terramedplus.tv.

At the 2-day event's closing press conference, the head of the European Union Delegation in Algeria, Ambassador Marek Skolil, affirmed that audiovisual cooperation has a prominent place among the tools and means existing in the Mediterranean, highlighting the importance of working together to strengthen the cooperation ties already in place. "The exchange of programmes in the audiovisual sector promotes intercultural dialogue and helps people to get a chance to better understand each other thanks to sound and image. This is a key point in succeeding in bridging the gap between both shores of the Mediterranean Sea that have many things in common".
Bruno Iovenitti (RaiNews), Terramed Plus project leader, presented to the journalists the main aspects of the project, and notably the web platform.

"Terramed Plus is a very positive project that should be expanded to the largest possible number of partners" concluded Pier Luigi Malesani, Secretary General of COPEAM.