TRT Afrika: Türkiye's public broadcaster launches Africa edition

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.

In line with TRT's objectives of impartial and inclusive journalism, TRT Afrika will provide its audience with an alternative narrative about Africa and feature global stories of significance to the continent with rich, timely and balanced information.

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.

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.

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.

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

Presidential Communications Director Fahrettin Altun, TRT General Manager Mehmet Zahid Sobaci, and African Broadcasting Union senior manager Gregoire Ndjaka will give opening speeches for TRT Afrika on Friday.

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".