About WITBN
The World Indigenous Television Broadcasters Network (WITBN) is a global alliance which aims to unify television broadcasters worldwide to retain and grow our Indigenous languages and cultures.
WITBN was established as a key outcome of the inaugural World Indigenous Television Broadcasting Conference (WITBC ’08) hosted by Māori Television in Aotearoa New Zealand in March 2008. The first council meeting was held at TG4, Ireland. The WITBN Council Report summarizes the key decisions that were made at this meeting.
The WITBN Founding Members are: TG4 (Ireland); Māori Television (Aotearoa New Zealand); NITV (Australia); TITV / PTS (Taiwan); BBC Alba (Scotland); NRK Sami Radio and Television (Norway); S4C (Wales); SABC (South Africa) and APTN (Canada). The main aim of WITBN is to develop collaborative relationships among Indigenous television broadcasters in order to create opportunities for:
- increased audiences;
- better access to resources;
- enhanced knowledge transfer;
- strategic international leadership;
- enhancement of schedules through program exchange; and
- reaching out to all other Indigenous television broadcasters.
Click HERE to read the WITBN Constitution.
Chairmanship
The current chairmanship sits under NRK Sápmi since March 2012. Nils Johan Heatta is the incumbent chairman and Jean LaRose, CEO of Aboriginal Peoples Television Network, serves as the vice chairman of WITBN.
Taiwan Indigenous TV (TITV) - with support from Public Television Service (PTS) - took over the chairmanship and secretariat role from March 2010 to February 2012. In September 2010, the WITBN Executive Committee elected Masao Aki, Chief Director of TITV, as chairman and Nils Johan Heatta, Director of NRK Sápmi, as vice chairman of the Network until March 2012.
Māori Television undertook the secretariat role for the Network in its first two years since 2008. Jim Mather, Māori Television CEO, was the inaugural chairman of WITBN.
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