The Arab States Broadcasting Union (ASBU) General Assembly held its thirty-ninth regular session in Khartoum, Sudan during the period 10-12 December 2019, under the auspices of Sudan’s Prime Minister, Dr. Abdullah Hamdouk, and in the presence of His Excellency the Minister of Culture and Information of the Sudanese Government, Mr. Faisal Muhammad Saleh President, ASBU’s President, Mr. Mohamed Abdel Mohsen Al-Awash and ASBU’s Director General, Eng. Abdul Rahim Suleiman.
Delegations of member corporations, representatives of the League of Arab States Secretariat General, ASBU’s permanent organs and a number of observers also attended the meetings. The General Assembly reviewed the report of the Director General on ASBU’s activities during the year 2019, praised its distinguished achievements and decided to validate them
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The G.A. chose the theme of "The role of radio in crisis management" to be the topic for experiences by member corporations presentations during the year 2020. In the field of television, the meeting stressed the importance of benefiting from the exchanged program contents by including them in their regular program schedules. It also urged the member corporations to participate extensively in the fourth version of the Arab TV co-production and in the eighth version of the Arab-European television co-production.
As for covering major events outside the Arab region, the General Assembly agreed to include the following events in the global coverage of the Unioby ASBU, namely the African Summit, the Climate Summit, the United Nations General Assembly, the Munich Security Conference and the G20 Summit in Riyadh.
In the field of sports, the General Assembly decided to continue negotiations with the broadcasting rights owners for the upcoming Olympic Games Tokyo 2020, in addition to covering the Mediterranean Games in Algeria.
Also, the General Assembly decided to validate the report and recommendations of the Engineering Committee. It valued the efforts made to complete the construction of the new Arab Exchange Center premices in Algeria, and requested the General Directorate to take measures to acquire the equipment required by the transfer from the old HQ, including the MENOS upgrades and the ASBU Cloud.
The meeting also decided that ASBU will continue supporting the underserved corporations in the field of training and qualifying their staffs in light of the success of the training program and its cost-effectiveness. It expressed satisfaction with the launching of the remote training platform, appreciating the efforts of the Media Training Academy to expand training mechanisms in the recent ways and provide training at low costs.
Engineer Abdul Rahim Suleiman presented to the G.A. a memorandum on organizing the first session of the "Arab Media Conference" and it decided to agree to hold its first session in Tunisia during October 2020, coinciding with the 21st edition of the Arab Radio and Television Festival. The conference theme will be "Arab Media and the Challenges of the Century: A pause for reflection,".
On the other hand, the G.A. accompanying activities included a professional debate on: "Regulating the audio-visual public media and its role in serving the public interest", with the participation of a number of Arab and foreign professionals and experts. The General Assembly also approved the proposal made by ASBU’s President to renew support to the Palestinian media on what they face from the Zionist occupation. The President and the Director General were delegated to determine the mechanisms of ASBU's support to the Palestinian media in coordination with the Palestinian Radio and Television corporation.