AUB intensifies preparations ahead of its 12th General Assembly to start on March 25th, 2019 in Marr
As a prelude to the next AUB’s General Assembly scheduled for March 25-29, 2019, in Marrakech, the Organizing Committee intensifies preparations simultaneously in Dakar, at the Union’s headquarters and in Morocco, host country of this 12th edition.
On Wednesday, March 06, 2019, the General Directorate held a meeting, chaired by the president of the AUB’s Executive Council, Ms. Keitirele Mathapi, who came from Botswana purposely to take part in the Dakar proceedings. The aim was to take full measure of the progress of the preparations and make the final adjustments for the total success of this event, she said.
According to the AUB’s Director General, Mr. Grégoire Ndjaka, each edition of the General Assembly has its own challenges. In Kigali, in 2018, the focus was on the switch-over of African audiovisual media from analogue to digital and technological challenges related to Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT). With its partners, the Union explored avenues of media solutions to the thorny problem of emigration that decimates young Africans who travel to the West every day by using makeshift boats, therefore risking their lives.
"The President of the Republic of Rwanda, HE Paul Kagame, then Chairman of the African Union (AU), honored the broad family of broadcasters in Kigali, by taking an active part in the debates and by answering the questions of the audiovisual professionals. Workshops resulted in the Kigali Declaration, which allowed the secretariat to have the roadmap that we managed to implement throughout the year 2018. It is in this perspective that the AUB’s Content Exchange Network was put in place. The Union organized training courses for the benefit of technicians and journalists from its Member Organizations and worked on a series of projects. In Marrakech, we have the ambition to continue in the same dynamic for the smooth running of broadcasting, "he said.
The 12th General Assembly of the AUB opens on March 25th 2019 with the holding of the Union’s Executive Council Meeting, at Marrakech’s Congress Hall. This meeting will give way to members to discuss issues related to the running of the Union. The Forum on "The contribution of regulators in the process of migration from analogue to digital” will take place on 26 March 2019. Therefore, experts will seize this opportunity to review the state of the audiovisual and telecommunications sectors in a time of convergences and divergences between platform owners and content designers. March 27, 2019, will give chance for the holding of four symposia. The first will be held under the theme: "Old and New Media in the Emerging Media Ecosystem in Africa", the 2nd symposium will discuss ways of a "User-friendly and effective revenue-gathering approaches through new technologies", the 3rd will embrace the "new paradigm" technology-driven development in Africa "while the 4th will zoom on" empowering conservation and protecting natural resources in Africa ".
In addition to the discussions on the African Cup of Nations (CAN), a debate on "The treaty of broadcasters” presented by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), will put an end to the AUB’s 12th General Assembly, in Marrakech.
