ABU and AIL sign MoU to establish news content exchange

The Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union (ABU) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Alliance of Latin American Information (AIL), establishing a news content exchange between the two organizations for the benefit of their members.

The MOU was signed at the ABU General Assembly in Mongolia by Ahmed Nadeem, ABU Secretary General, and Juan Carlos Isaza Montejo, Director of AIL.

AIL is an alliance of 22 Latin American television stations that share high-level news content, as well as human and technical resources.

Indra Singh, ABU Director of News, welcomed the official agreement. "We had been using AIL's content and they ours on a trial basis, and after that period, both parties saw the clear benefit of making this collaboration official," he said.

Singh added that the deal will allow ABU News to offer more Latin American content on its Asia-Pacific View (APV) platform through Asiavision, helping members enhance their international news coverage. "It also means our members' content will now be reaching homes in a completely different part of the world," he said.

Juan Carlos Isaza Montejo of AIL expressed his delight with the partnership. "This new agreement signed in Ulaanbaatar will allow our organization to take a very important step toward providing our 21 partner television channels with a global news service under a news exchange cooperation agreement," he said. "This will also bring Latin America, the Caribbean, and Spain closer to Asia and the Pacific."

He added that in a new era of social media, disinformation, and fake news, "collaboration between serious, responsible, and recognized media outlets is essential to protect democracy, freedom of expression, and press freedom."