The Arab States Broadcasting Union (ASBU) has elected Ismail El-Sheshtawi as its new president, at the ASBU General Assembly, in Cairo.

Mr El-Sheshtawi, the chairman of the board of Egyptian national broadcaster and EBU Member, ERTU, took up the two-year post on January 1.

In addition, Deputy Head of the Commercial Sector at Kuwait’s broadcasting authority, Mohamed Abdulmohsen Al-Awash, was elected First Vice-President, and Tunisian Radio General Manager Mohamed Meddeb has become Second Vice-President.

Slaheddine Maaoui remains Director General of ASBU, which is an EBU sister union.

EBU Director General Ingrid Deltenre sent letters of congratulation to Mr. El Sheshtawi and Mr. Meddeb, whose organizations hold both EBU and ASBU membership.

The ASBU Executive Council was also partially renewed, so that besides the three countries of the Presidency it now includes for the period 2013-2014: Bahrain, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Qatar, United Arab Emirates and Yemen.

It also has two Participating Members representing commercial broadcasters – Middle East Broadcasting Center (MBC) and Lebanese Information Group Al-Manar TV and En-Nour radio.

During the Assembly a televised debate was held to discuss public service media content, professional standards for broadcast media ethics, principles and rules and the balance between media freedom and social responsibility.

Participants were professors of journalism and academics in the fields of communications, law and political science, from Egypt, Tunisia, Morocco and Saudi Arabia. Also present were international experts from international organizations and media institutions, such as the EBU, the International Radio & Television Union (URTI), the BBC Arabic service and Italian public broadcaster RAI.

Transcripts of the debate, which was aired by ERTU, will be compiled in a text that ASBU will publish this year ahead of discussions on the reform of its statutes, which will take place in June, in Tunis.

The Egyptian Minister of Information Salah Abdel Maksoud also contributed to the Assembly, promising a reform of media and freedom of expression laws. He said approval of this would be a priority after the next Egyptian General Election, scheduled for spring.

More information on ASBU home page