Türkiye’s public broadcaster TRT has launched a new digital news platform, TRT Afrika, to highlight stories of and from the continent to a global audience in four languages: Swahili, English, Hausa and French.
The channel went live on Friday during the second day of the ‘First Broadcasting Summit’ organised by TRT and The African Union of Broadcasting in Istanbul. The three-day summit began on March 30.
It also will give voice to stories from Africa and Africans in the diaspora, putting the unique blend of their core values at the heart of the world’s events.
With staff members from 15 countries in the continent, TRT Afrika's digital aim is to become a trusted news source in the continent, featuring global stories significant to African audiences and producing high-quality content for globally-connected youth on social media.
The true face of Africa
It aims to provide unique digital content, exclusive stories, investigations and documentaries of local African issues to African and global audiences and meet the information needs of the African diaspora worldwide.
Speaking at the event, Turkiye's Presidential Communications Director Fahrettin Altun said that TRT Afrika set out with a multidimensional, pluralistic and fair journalism approach, as in other international broadcasts of TRT.
He said "TRT Afrika presents the culture, history, social life, political developments and untold rich and beautiful face of this great continent.
"I believe that TRT Afrika will make an important contribution to the strong relations between Turkey and African countries and will play a serious role in explaining the true face of Africa to the world."
TRT Afrika will be active in dozens of African countries from Gambia to Morocco, Nigeria to Cameroon. In this way, it also extends Türkiye’s longstanding commitment to Africa, providing a platform for African voices to be heard and celebrated worldwide.
In his speech, TRT’s Director General Mehmet Zahid Sobaci said TRT Afrika will reflect Turkish policies with Africa "on the basis of a win-win situation".
"As of today, TRT Afrika will start broadcasting, and we know that we will be addressing a very special audience because Africa for decades has been subject to the subjective broadcasting policies of the West," Sobaci added.
Sobaci said Africa has been assessed "only in line with the interests of the Western world" and that "colonialism has been overlooked for many years."
TRT Afrika is the latest member of the TRT family that include TRT World, TRT Arabic, TRT Russian, TRT Deutsch, TRT Français and TRT Balkan – all individually and collectively bringing diverse voices and perspectives to global audiences.
TRT Afrika summit
On the first day of the summit on Thursday, representatives of the African Broadcasting Union came together under the theme "Towards a Sustainable Future: Reshaping the Public Broadcasting Service".
At least 23 journalists from 16 African countries were also trained on topics such as "Change of the media during the pandemic process", "Contribution of technology to the change of journalism", and "Tools to be used against the Western ethnocentric approach".
Later on Friday, the summit will feature talks on topics such as: "Africa-Türkiye Relations in the Mirror of Public Service Media: Shared Vision and Future Challenges", "How Can African and Turkish Public Service Media Stay Sustainable in the Digital Age?" and "The Changing Face of Global News Feeds: Common for a Fairer World".
It will continue with panels on "Telling African Stories with Vision".
