A partnership Agreement on Content Exchange between the Latin American Information Alliance (AIL) and the African Union of Broadcasting (AUB)
During the Summit of the Latin American Information Alliance, the Director General of the AUB, Grégoire Ndjaka, and the Director of the AIL, Juan Carlos Isaza, signed a Partnership based on the sharing of information of interest to all allied TV channels.
The Latin American Information Alliance (AIL) and the African Union of Broadcasting (AUB) signed on Friday morning, June 14, 2024 a partnership agreement between the two organizations, which brings together TV channels from the American, European and African continents.
Under this declaration of intent, the AIL and the AUB are open to sharing information of interest to all allied television channels within the framework of the XVI Summit of the Latin American Information Alliance (AIL).
This historic moment for both organizations took place during the third and final day of the event held at the Hotel Santa Catalina in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, where the CEO of the AUB, Grégoire Ndjaka, and the Director of AIL, Juan Carlos Isaza, were in charge of signing their clear objective of joint cooperation in front of the entire audience.
According to Grégoire Ndjaka, the cooperation which begins today between the two continents "will be able to break down the walls existing between Latin America and Africa. We must build bridges between these continents. There is no Latin American correspondent in Africa, which means that more than a billion human beings are not taken into account and their realities in this part of the world are not known", he said.
Juan Carlos Isaza, indicated that "it is a privilege that the AUB joins the AIL and that from now on Africa is present in the news of Latin America". He also highlighted the "ease of cooperation since AUB uses exactly the same platform as AIL to share and exchange news. Now, we are just a click away from finding out what is happening in Africa and also sharing our stories."
Training
The AUB also took advantage of its participation in this meeting between TV channels from around the world to present its project which aims to build alliances and generate new avenues of cooperation and exchange.
As Grégoire Ndjaka explains, AUB is an organization made up of 54 Members Organization from all over Africa which has its headquarters in Dakar (Senegal). It is an organization similar to AIL which is dedicated to sharing audiovisual content and promoting the development of the African continent through the dissemination of information through radio and television.
Many languages such as French, Portuguese, Swahili, English and Arabic are used to share the information provided by radio and TV channels of this organization, which enrich and give cultural diversity to the content. "We are increasing the number of African members, it is our job to integrate all African radios and televisions that do not have the same strength outside the AUB", he said.
Grégoire Ndjaka also highlighted the proximity of the African continent with the Canary Islands, which allows to strengthen the links with RTVC and to become the bridge with Europe and the other side of the Atlantic, and therefore with Latin American television channels. "In Africa, what happens outside is unknown, an Equatorial Guinean does not know what is happening in Latin America and vice versa, and that is why we must broaden our horizons." The DG of the AUB also presented some projects that he is implementing and others still in development, such as seminars and training for allied journalists to improve the quality of audiovisual production in Africa. Grégoire Ndjaka gave the example of training on climate change, "a reality on which we have trained more than 1,000 journalists. We can see that many of our journalists now speak about climate change with knowledge and awareness. You cannot live in Africa without knowing what climate change is, society must be aware of it," he said.
In addition, he listed other training courses aimed at young aspiring journalists or aimed at recognizing the journalistic capacity of women, whose work in the African media has always been linked to education issues. "Thanks to this project, women journalists are now beginning to be taken into account more in other specialties."
"The need to tell your own story and have your own voice is another of the missions of the AUB," he said, while emphasizing that "other continents should not speak for us."
Voice of America and ENEX LATAM
Right after the African Union, the Voice of America (VOA), the largest international multimedia news organization in the United States, presented its work and future goals. It currently offers content in more than 45 languages and aims to present US policy in the world.
VOA Marketing Director Iscar Blanco, Spanish Service Chief Lina Correa, Digital Platforms Editorial Manager Gesell Tobias and White House Correspondent Jorge Agobian gave an informative talk about the basis of their work, their cooperation with the more than 680 affiliates worldwide, the important work of correspondents or the role of this entity in the political sphere of the United States, in which they highlighted the great coverage they provide during the American presidential elections. They also explained their work in the production of documentaries.
The presentation cycle ended with ENEX LATAM, a European news exchange agency that currently brings together the main television channels around the world. Its Director General, Adrian Wells, explained to the participants the different international channels with which they cooperate and the resources they offer to their allies to complement or improve the quality of their information.
In its beginnings, in the early 90s, ENEX began as an alliance of European networks for the exchange of news and technical resources, a spirit similar to that of AIL. Step by step, it acquired an international character with the addition of televisions and networks from all over the world. Since 2014, it has maintained a very close cooperation with the Latin American Information Alliance.
The union of four continents united by TV
The presence of AUB, Voice of America and ENEX marks an important milestone at the XVI AIL Summit by integrating representatives of television channels and associated companies from all over the world. It is also worth highlighting AIL's cooperation with Radio Television Cape Verde and the Cabo Verde Broadcast company, the American channel CBS (main partner of the Alliance) and the Chinese national television (CCTV), which also did not miss this great event. An event that culminated with the celebration of the Iris América 2024 Awards gala.
Original source:
Translated from Spanish
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