9th February 2021
Organized under the aegis of the Arab States Broadcasting Union, an international meeting took place online on February 9, gathering the main representatives of ASBU, EBU (European Broadcasting Union), AUB (African Union of Broadcasting) and COPEAM, with the participation of a large number of common members.
The participants presented the activities developed in the past months and the forthcoming initiatives in the training, coproduction and news domains.
A particular focus was made on the fruitful collaboration between EBU and ASBU Academies that will continue with at least 4 e-masterclasses in 2021; two training projects led by COPEAM on “Reporting climate change” and “Gender Equality in the Media”; the ASBU-COPEAM TV coproduction InterRives 8 – federating this year 15 public broadcasters - and the proposal to enlarge to ASBU members two radio international series promoted by COPEAM, one of which in Arabic.
Before reminding the celebration of the 10th anniversary of the UNESCO World Radio Day on February 13, the inter-Union news exchange was a topic of debate, with detailed figures shown by the Head of ASBU programme exchange centre, highlights about the EBU News Project and the ERN-Med (Echange Régional de News Méditerranéen), particularly the 2021 edition of the ERN-Med Prize, supported this year by UNESCO.
Finally, the attendees shared the respective annual agendas: from the EBU Digital Radio Summit in February, to COPEAM 2021 Conference and General Assembly and the next ASBU’s Arab Radio and Television Festival, with the launch of the 1st edition of the Arab Media Conference, most likely in October.
The prospect of an intensified cooperation with the African Union of Broadcasting, especially in the training field, was warmly encouraged.