The Palestinian cause at center stage of this 2024 edition.
The broad outlines of the 24th edition of the Arab Radio and Television Festival, scheduled for June 26-29, 2024 in Tunis, were unveiled on Thursday at a press conference held at the headquarters of the Arab Radio and Television Union (ASBU) in Tunis.
The latest technological innovations in audiovisual production, the radio and TV program market, and seminars on Artificial Intelligence (AI) and war information are on the menu of this 24th edition, which is dedicated to support for Palestine.
The Arab Radio and Television Festival is organized by the Arab State Broadcasting Union (ASBU), in partnership with the Ministry of Cultural Affairs, the Tunisian Radio and Television Establishments and the Arab Satellite Communications Organization (ArabsaT).
Under the terms of the agreement signed in February 2023 between the Ministry of Cultural Affairs and ASBU, the festival will take place for three successive years in the Organization’s home country, Tunisia.
Each year, the festival takes place at the Cité de la Culture, where the various events are held.
The Palestinian cause and solidarity with the Palestinian people are at the heart of this 2024 edition, with programming focused on the resistance of the Palestinian people and Arab and foreign media coverage of the situation in the occupied territories, since the start of the war against the Gaza Strip on October 7, 2023.
The opening evening will be hosted by Lebanese singer Ragheb Alama, who will perform at Carthage’s Roman Amphitheatre on June 26. Proceeds from the evening will go to Palestine.
Scheduled to take place at the Théâtre de l’Opéra in the Cité de la Culture, the closing evening will feature a concert by the Arab Symphony Orchestra entitled “Rouh el arab”, followed by the announcement of the winners of the television and radio competitions.
TV and radio stations belonging to Asbu will be taking part in the official selection for audiovisual media professionals. Production companies take part in the parallel section.
Two competitions and two parallel sections are dedicated to participating television and radio works. Each year, two winners are selected in each of the many categories (programs, series, podcasts, variety and talkshows, reports, interviews, and so on).
In addition to the competition, the festival features a cultural and artistic program, with tributes and guests of honor from emblematic figures of the Arab audiovisual landscape.
Tributes will be paid to Ziad Makkari (Minister of Information, Lebanon), Hadil Eleyan (journalist, Palestine), Hassan Ben Mohamed Almass (engineer, Qatar), Mayssoun Abdallah Ahmad (journalist, Djibouti) and Sonia Ben Belgacem (actress and producer, Tunisia).
Arab actors and actresses are among this year’s guests of honor: Fathi Abdelwaheb and Dalia Behiri (Egypt), Saif Sebai and Nadine Tahssine Bik (Syria), Nada Abou Farhat (Lebanon) , Rim Saada (Jordnaie) and Iman Youssef (Sudan).
The festival organizes a forum on Sino-Arab cooperation in the audiovisual field, in addition to three conferences on the following themes: “Information war or war against the media: Palestine as an example” (Thursday June 27), “Engineering seminar: involving the public through the use of AI” and “Celebrity in the digital world and the influence of public opinion” (Friday June 28).
In the central hall of the Cité de la culture, 90 exhibitors from five continents will be presenting the latest technological innovations in audiovisual production at 98 stands.
The TV and radio program market is dedicated to ASBU member bodies, including public and private Arab TV and radio channels, production companies and Arab news agencies.
Non-Arab production companies and radio stations that produce and broadcast in Arabic are also invited. This year’s event will see the participation of countries such as China, France and Italy.
This year, the Festival received 289 entries, including 147 television programs, with 108 in the official competition and 39 in the parallel section. These entries were submitted by 20 TV channels, including 6 private channels, as well as 18 production companies. On the radio side, 142 entries were received, including 125 in the official competition and 17 in the parallel section – an unprecedented number in the festival’s history.
A record number of entries in the official competition were received from 20 radio organizations, including 8 private and other international radio stations broadcasting in Arabic, as well as production companies in the parallel section.
Asbu is a pan-Arab institution founded in February 1969 in Khartoum (Sudan). Its main objective is to strengthen cooperative links between Arab broadcasting organizations with a view to developing the content of their audiovisual productions.
The opening and closing ceremonies are usually broadcast live on various Arab television and radio stations, both public and private.
TunisianMonitorOnline (NejiMed)
