All the subjects related to the theme that will be brought up by the meeting participants in the first plenum will be tackled in working groups and later presented to the next plenum. We have contracted two experienced facilitators namely Prabu Naidu and Janice Lua for this.

Some 35 seasoned broadcasters from Asia-Pacific examined the first draft of the proposed Guidebook on an Asia-Pacific Approach to Public Service Broadcasting (PSB) during a two-day workshop in Kuala Lumpur on May 24-25, 2008.

Organised and funded by AIBD and the Friedrich-Ebert Stiftung, the workshop was the first of a series of roundtable discussions to provide a practical reference book that will guide countries keen to move towards setting up a public service broadcasting system.

Mr. Jose Maria G. Carlos, AIBD Consultant, made a PowerPoint presentation, highlighting the key principles that should guide the creation of PSB. These were the following:

• PSB should be for all citizens
• PSB should reflect diversity
• PSB should ensure quality content
• PSB should ensure editorial independence. PSB should ensure financial independence and sustainability
• PSB adheres to strong accountability practices
• PSB should promote a professional and creative human resource.
▪ PSB should promote strategic partnership and collaboration

He stressed that an effective PSB requires media literate audience able to effectively and efficiently comprehend and utilize mass media content.

The Guidebook covers other topics such as the formation of the governing and executive bodies, laws and regulations, funding sources training, digitization and ways to facilitate transition from state broadcasting to PSB During the workshop, the broadcasters were organized into two panels to review the draft guidelines on these topics, presenting recommendations and new ideas to strengthen the development of PSB in the region. They adopted suggestions to list the advantages of implementing a transition stage to facilitate the creation of PSB.

Mr. Kumar Abeysinghe, former chairman of
the Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation, who served as chairman of the workshop, said the proposed Guidebook would serve as the contribution of seasoned broadcasters to the young broadcasters in the region.

At the opening ceremony, Mr. Javad Mottaghi, AIBD Director, said the Institute has organized about 50 activities dealing with PSB over the last ten years, and the clamor among broadcasters was to set up an Asia-Pacific approach to PSB. He said there was a mandate for AIBD to pursue this approach as reflected in the Bangkok Declaration signed by Asia-Pacific Ministers of Information and Broadcasting in their meeting in Bangkok in 2003.
Dr. Paul Pasch, FES representative in Malaysia, emphasized that the Guidebook will be useful as long as there is a strong commitment among countries in the region to implement a PSB model.

Last updated 26.06.08 14:51 by Das