Broadcasters from all over the world come together in Sinaia

The major issues challenging broadcasting and communications in the 21st Century were tackled at the Media 2020 conference held on Monday in the Romanian mountain resort of Sinaia.

Mihai Pelin, 12.09.2017, 13:04

The central
Romanian resort of Sinaia plays host to the 3rd Asia-Pacific-Europe
Media Dialogue conference. The event, which is organised jointly by Radio
Romania and the Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union (ABU), brings together experts
from all over the world. The event started on Monday with the Media 2020
conference, whose theme was How can
Asia-Europe cooperation help meet new media challenges. Media 2020
is a meeting place for radio, TV and other media broadcasters on the 21st
Century information highway between Europe and Asia-Pacific.

Among other
topics, the conference discussed the way in which radio broadcasters respond
to current challenges in a rapidly changing media landscape. It is essential for
a media institution to remain viewed as an authoritative, trustworthy source of
information, the director of the BBC’s editorial policy and standards
department David Jordan has said. He has also pointed out that maintaining
values and standards in a world that is increasingly characterised by
partisanship is more and more of a challenge. Achieving accuracy and
impartiality is a very difficult thing to do and we do not always do it
properly, David Jordan went on to say. Being trusted by audiences is absolutely
critical to the reputation of the BBC, he has also said. A solution in this
respect is an informational platform that should bring together broadcasters
from Asia and Europe so as they can benefit from each other’s expertise,
participants in the conference concluded.

The
conference also discussed the increased attention that young people pay to
social networks, with participants trying to find solutions to draw younger
audiences to traditional information providers. In her turn, Olya
Booyar, ABU Head of Radio, underlined the important role that radio continues
to play in the new media landscape. She pointed out that in fact public radio
broadcasters have adapted their products and have not only survived but have
also gained new listeners by embracing the new media. In the Asia-Pacific
region, she explained, in all 69 countries, radio is extremely important and
extremely alive and is actually picking up a lot of new listeners.

Javad
Mottaghi, ABU Secretary General, talked about the importance of public radio in
Romania. He said that the most important challenge for broadcasters is knowing
what to do in order to turn challenges into opportunities and talked about
consolidating and expanding a partnership between ABU and the Romanian public
radio. He also said that although Radio Romania is a new
member of the Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union, it has proved to be a very
active one in trying to create a platform that has helped media professionals
from both continents to get together and have a better understanding about each
other.

Media 2020
is held in conjunction with another conference, Public Broadcasting
International 2017, taking place in Sinaia on September 12 and 13. The event
brings together radio and television professionals from over 40 countries who
are sharing ideas about the best way to deal with the challenges facing media
institutions. This is the first time that this conference is held in Southeast
Europe.