The 18th Arab Festival of Radio and Television, organized by the Arab States Broadcasting Union (ASBU), ended on April 28th in Hammamet (Tunisia). Numerous awards have been given to the Arab world’s best television and radio productions, out of the 230 works entered in the various competitions.
Best Television Series went to the Kuwaiti series “Hikayet”, just ahead of the Jordanian series “The Determination”, broadcast on the JRTV.
Tunisian Television received the Best Television Documentary award for its film about the Palestinian cause. The radio equivalent of this award went to another Tunisian broadcaster, Diwan FM, based in Sfax.
Palestine is particularly well represented in the awards list, winning 2nd prize for in the Television Report category for “The Schoolchildren and the Barricades in the Occupied Zone of Al Khalil” produced by Palestinian Radio and Television and 2nd Prize for Best Televised Talk Show, won by the Musawa Channel.
Algerian public television, EPTV, also distinguished itself by winning three awards: Best Prevention Commercial, Best Variety Show, and Best Children’s Programme.
In addition CGTN Arabic, the Arabic channel of the Chinese group CGTN, managed to place two of its programmes among the winners in the parallel competition for ASBU’s non-active members: “The second central television Arabic competition” won Best Variety Show and “Terrorism: the common enemy of mankind” Best Prevention Commercial.
One of the aims of the Arab Festival of Radio and Television is to encourage radio and television production in the Arab world to improve its standards. As well as giving awards to the best programmes produced in the region, the event also organises workshops and seminars on major media issues. According to the ASBU, the Festival welcomed more than 800 participants this year.
Sources: Espace Manager, L’Expression, Wafa, ASBU, CGTN
