Sendai-Japan: ABU Global News Forum and News Group Meeting 2015 Successful

This year the ABU Global News Forum (GNF) and the News Group Meeting were held back-to-back in Sendai, Japan. Nearly one hundred delegates, mainly News leaders, heads of news and senior journalists of the Union member countries attended the two meetings which were hosted by NHK, the Japanese national broadcaster.

The Managing Director of NHK Mr Koki Morinaga gave the congratulatory address and the ABU News Group chairman Mr Joao Francisco Pinto the opening remarks. The GNF takes place every two years  where broadcast journalists across the globe and in the Asia-Pacific Region meet for an open and high-profile dialogue on dominant issues facing the media sector. The main topic this year was how the broadcasting industry copes and covers the occurrence of natural disasters. The forum was held in parallel with the Third UN World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction in Sendai, a region struck by The Great East Japan Earthquake on March 11, 2011.

The News Group meeting is a platform to review and plan the future direction of the Asiavision operations. Comprising of 29 members, Asiavision is the daily TV news exchange programme run by the Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union (ABU).

Three new members from the Asia-Pacific region have joined Asiavision this year.