Türkiye’s TRT hosts major broadcasting body meeting in Istanbul

ISTANBUL (AA) – Turkish public broadcaster TRT on Friday hosted the latest board of directors meeting of the Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union (ABU), the world's largest broadcasting association, in Istanbul.

The body's strategy for 2023-2024 was determined at the meeting, which began with opening speeches by Mehmet Zahid Sobaci, TRT's director general, and Eui-Chul Kim, president of Korean Broadcasting System (KBS) and vice president of the ABU, the TRT said in a statement.

High-level broadcasters from 18 countries such as South Korea, Japan, Indonesia, Uzbekistan, and China, attended the meeting of the broadcasting body, which has 246 members from 64 countries that appeal to approximately 3.5 billion viewers.

Speaking at the event, TRT’s Sobaci said the Turkish public broadcaster adopted a holistic and human-centered approach to broadcasting.

“As Türkiye's public broadcaster, we adopt a quality, in-depth, truth and human-centered approach to broadcasting that covers eight billion people with our international news channels, digital news platforms, events and productions.

“We have prepared our TRT-ABU Strategy Document and Action Plan, with which we aim to engage our institution more with both the ABU secretariat and its members,” he said.

Noting that TRT, Türkiye​​​​​​​'s first and only public broadcaster, broadcasting in 18 television channels, 17 radio channels, seven international digital news platforms, four printed magazines, and 41 languages ​​and dialects, is open to cooperation with ABU in every field, Sobaci said he believes relations with the platform will be strengthened even further.

“As the TRT family, in the coming days, we will launch the TRT International Digital Platform, which we have been working on for a long time. I want to share our happiness and excitement with you,” he said.

Sobaci said the platform will operate in five languages, including Turkish, English, Arabic, Spanish, and Urdu, and it will begin “its long journey as a harbinger of a paradigm shift, not an alternative to the current system.”

He also noted that the TRT is "open to the productions, joint works, and all kinds of cooperation of you colleagues in the Asia Pacific region, where we strengthen our cooperation day by day.”

For his part, Vice President ABU Eui-Chul Kim thanked the TRT and said the broadcasting association wants to expand its cooperation with the Turkish public broadcaster.

Among the participants at the meeting were Japan Broadcasting Corporation (NHK), Korea Broadcasting System (KBS), Radio Republik Indonesia (RRI), National Television and Radio Company of Uzbekistan (MTRK), China’s National Radio and Television Administration (NRTA), India's state-owned public broadcaster Prasar Bharati, and the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC).