ABU GA – Broadcasting Unions in the Asia-Pacific, Africa and Arab States sign pacts on greater cooperation

Broadcasters in the Asia-Pacific, Africa and Arab States have agreed to work together more closely.

Memorandums of Agreement were signed today (17 October 2012) between the heads of the Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union (ABU), the African Union of Broadcasters (AUB) and the Arab States Broadcasting Union (ASBU) at the ABU General Assembly in Seoul, Korea.

In two bilateral agreements with the ABU, the organisations commit to greater cooperation in program, news and resource sharing – including funding – and agree to work together on a number of projects.

“This is a great step forward for public broadcasters and other media organisations in our three regions,” said ABU Secretary-General Dr Javad Mottaghi.

“It means we can share resources but, more importantly, we can open up for viewers and listeners a window on the lives of people in other regions.”

ASBU Director-General  Salah Eddine Maaoui said that the two unions have been partnering for some time now but it was useful to renew this relationship at a time when broadcasting in both regions was taking on a new and more complex character:   “The agreement is rich, diversified and comprehensive and covers news & sports, technology, training, programming and many more initiatives.”

The sentiment was echoed by AUB Secretary-General Lawrence Atiase who said that the agreement “officialises our relationship and revitalises all that we do to bring the people of the Asian region and the people of Africa, closer together.”

While both the Memorandums of Understanding between the ABU and the AUB and between the ABU and the ASBU call for greater information-sharing, joint training initiatives, the sharing of consultants and the coordination of efforts, they also commit to specific issues of cooperation.

These include looking at ways of sharing news services and other program content. In the case of Africa, staff at the AUB’s News and Program Exchange Center based in Nairobi, Kenya, and the Asiavision System based in Kuala Lumpur will work together on details of implementing content exchange. In the case of the Arab States, staff at Asiavision will work with their counterparts at the ASBU News and Program Exchange Center based in Algiers.

The Memorandums also include working together on a range of “events in the field of program, news and sports matters” taking place in their respective regions, and each agreement commits the partner unions to “cooperate to ensure joint coverage of major world events taking place outside the two regions”.

On specific projects, the Memorandums call for closer cooperation of existing initiatives such as the ABU Children’s TV Programme Item Exchange, ABU Copyright Committee, the annual ABU Radio Asia Conference, the ABU Radio and Television Song Festivals and the forthcoming World Summit on Media for Children to be held in Kuala Lumpur in 2014.