We spend a lot of time talking about what audiences see.

The match. The broadcast. The breaking story. The final programme that reaches millions of people. But some of the most important work happens long before any of that.

From 28–30 September, ABU Legal was in Kuching for the Sarawak Sports Integrity Conference 2026, where the conversation centred on something that rarely makes the highlight reel: what it takes to ensure that major sporting events are built on transparency, accountability and good governance.

Representing ABU, Dr Seemantani Sharma, Legal Manager (Regulatory & Intellectual Property), contributed to discussions around procurement, public contracting and corruption risks as Malaysia prepares to host the SEA Games 2027. Not exactly the part of sport that gets the dramatic slow-motion replay. But perhaps it should get more attention.

Because behind every major sporting event is an enormous network of decisions. Contracts are signed. Rights are negotiated. Public money may be involved. Broadcasters, sporting bodies, governments and commercial partners all become part of the same ecosystem.

And somewhere in the middle of all of that sits one word we hear constantly in media today:

Trust.

We usually talk about trust in relation to journalism, whether audiences believe what they see, hear and read. But trust is bigger than the story we eventually put on air. It exists in the systems behind it, the partnerships surrounding it and the decisions made when nobody is watching.

That is why conversations like the one in Sarawak matter to the ABU.

Our world is no longer neatly divided into broadcasting, technology, sport, law, content and journalism. They overlap. Increasingly, what happens in one affects all the others.

And perhaps that makes the timing particularly fitting.

In just a few weeks, the ABU community will gather in Colombo from 30 October to 3 November for the 63^rd ABU General Assembly and Associated Meetings. Our theme this year is “Media for Peace and Humanity: Truth, Trust and Transformation.”

Three very big words.

But after the conversations we have been having across the ABU this year, they are beginning to feel less like a theme and more like a reflection of where our industry finds itself. Technology will continue to change. Platforms will come and go. The way audiences consume media will keep evolving.

But whether we are covering a major sporting event, experimenting with AI, producing a news bulletin or negotiating what happens behind the scenes, trust still has to be earned before it can ever be broadcast.

And on that note…

Sri Lanka, we’re coming.