Interview to Issam EL-AMIR, Chairman of ERTU

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Which role does COPEAM play for ERTU?

ERTU is one of the founding members of COPEAM, by the signature of the Association’s By-Laws on the 13 January 1996, during the Cairo Conference.

Thus, in this capacity and as a member of COPEAM Steering Committee, ERTU sees to contribute to the achievement of all the objectives and the activities of COPEAM and to benefit from them, in terms of:

promotion of the public media’s mission in the whole Mediterranean area;
reinforcement of the cultural exchanges between the peoples of the Region, through the participation in training sessions and workshops aiming at strengthening the audiovisual cooperation.

In this framework COPEAM has recently supported the training project on cultural documentary production, organized by ERTU and devoted to the “preservation of the human heritage”, held from 8 to 13 February 2015.

ERTU also takes part in the annual conference and general assembly of COPEAM, representing an occasion to reflect together on how to further boost the cooperation links between the members, as well as around the development of new coproduction projects.

What do you think about the “Inter-Rives” project as an example of cooperation in the coproduction field?COPEAM has been developing several coproduction projects such as Kantara, the radio programme intended to promote the human heritage in the Mediterranean and of which the Egyptian radio is partner along with the Tunisian, Algerian, Moroccan and French public radios; Joussour, in which ERTU is one of the co-producing TVs; Inter-Rives, a project to which ERTU regularly takes part, annually focusing on a different topic of general interest – such as the young generations or sports – for the Mediterranean audiences as well as for ERTU itself and other COPEAM broadcasting members. This coproduction resulting from the fruitful cooperation between COPEAM and ASBU allows ERTU to profit by:

the enrichment of ERTU programming thanks to the documentaries made available by the other participating broadcasters through the basket formula, offering an overview on the various cultural aspects and on issues interesting the countries represented in the project.
the reinforcement of the involved filmmaker’s capacities by participating to the coproduction workshops.

Which activities should be reinforced in the framework of COPEAM?

Considering the role played by COPEAM in the exchanges between televisions and radios in the Mediterranean, ERTU proposes to:

reinforce the training offer by organizing workshops aiming at enhancing the skills in different fields (realization, photography, etc..);
set up co-production projects with other television members, so contributing to the development of the cooperation and comprehension among the populations of the Mediterranean region;
encourage programmes exchanges among broadcasters. ERTU provided to COPEAM members programmes dealing with Egyptian current affairs, such as documentaries on the project of the new Suez Canal. The Egyptian broadcasters would be interested in receiving programmes from other members dealing with the different aspects of their countries life. On one side, this would enrich ERTU programming, including programmes on the life of people, while, on the other side, it would make Egyptian way of life known to other countries.