Nearly 200 senior media executives from 41 countries of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) assembled at the Media Summit, hosted by Turkish Radio Television (TRT). Sobaci, Director General of TRT who spoke at the Summit stated, “I have no doubt that as EBU members with our usual spirit of solidarity, we will continue to enforce and expand our cooperation through joint and innovative initiatives for a more peaceful future and the enrichment of the broadcasting culture as well.”
Members of EBU, including TRT, assembled for the first in-person summit after two years due to pandemics. Nearly 200 senior media executives from 41 countries attended the EBU Media Summit, along with Mehmet Zahid Sobaci, Director General of TRT, and Noel Curren, Director General of EBU. During the two-day summit, many topics, from the future of public service broadcasting to key challenges, new trends to innovation to reach young audiences were discussed.
“We should remember that unity is our strength.”
Mehmet Zahid Sobaci, Director General of TRT, who gave the opening speech of the Summit, stated that they were excited to host the 2022 EBU Media Summit that was performed in person after a long time. Sobaci, underlining that conventional values such as objectivity, justice, and truthfulness should also be the constant standards of digital media of the future, suggested, “I have no doubt that as EBU members with our usual spirit of solidarity, we will continue to enforce and expand our cooperation through joint and innovative initiatives for a more peaceful future and the enrichment of the broadcasting culture as well. We should remember that unity is our strength.”
Director-General of TRT Sobaci highlighted that TRT, which became one of the most important global media actors of today, continued to be the lead broadcaster of Turkey with 18 TV channels, 17 radio stations as well as 9 digital platforms, digital applications, and national and international events and continued, “We should see the world as a whole without discrimination against people and geographies and with the thought that every human being is precious, understand that ignoring them is not a solution. In this regard we know that this is also a matter of importance to the EBU, we are prioritizing the relationship between the youth and public broadcasting in our work and revealing their views and solution offers on global issues.”
Sobaci, mentioning the digital news platforms of TRT, “Today, as TRT, we are reaching the 7 continents with 41 languages and dialects via our television and radio channels and digital platforms. Along with TRT World, recently we added TRT Francais to our digital news platforms, TRT Deutsch, TRT Russian, and TRT Arabic, celebrating the launch of the latest member of our international broadcasting family. The work is still in progress to launch the Africa, Balkan and Farsi digital news platforms.”
“Public broadcasters will strongly fight against infollution, deliberate perception operations, and disinformation.”
Sobaci, underlining that crises, problems, and changes could not be thought of separately from the digitalization process, made a historical call. Sobaci, “We, public broadcasters, are important organizations that will strongly fight against infollution, deliberate perception operations, and disinformation.”
“Turkey is the second biggest exporter of TV series after the United States”
Sobaci, mentioning the success of TRT’s TV series and co-productions as well as digital platforms, stated, “In this regard, I would like to draw your attention to the global interest in the TRT drama series. Turkey is the second biggest exporter of TV series after the United States. The pioneering role of our Corporation in the worldwide sales of the series cannot be denied when we are talking about this success. Our series, co-production movies, and cartoons are in high demand. We are still working to launch the TRT international digital video platform in the upcoming months. This digital platform and the new content to be produced will also enable potential co-production with the EBU members and also allow us to benefit from the opportunities and cooperation possibilities of the EBU pre-buy network. TRT actively contributed to EBU’s free-of-charge “Content Appeal” program pool during the pandemic with lots of different genres of content, like documentaries and dramas. At the same time, TRT is also making a name for itself in the field of cinema with its international cooperation. For the last three years, TRT co-produced films and won nearly 275 awards in more than 300 national and international festivals including Cannes, Berlin, Karlovy Vary, Venice, San Sebastian, Warsaw and Locarno Film Festivals. TRT also contributes to partnerships and cooperation in this field with TRT Special Awards in International Film Festivals, corporate business partnerships and events.”
Noel Curren, Director General of EBU, who also spoke at the Summit said, “We would like to thank TRT for this wonderful organization and hospitality. It is a great pleasure for us to be together. Hereby, we would like to increase our cooperation with TRT.”
EBU, founded to gather public service broadcasters in Europe, is regarded as one of the most important public service broadcaster unions in the world.
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