Maori Television will host the first World Indigenous Television Broadcasting Conference (WITBC) in Auckland, New Zealand, 26–28 March 2008.
Operating with the theme "Reclaiming the Future," the three-day WITBC conference will bring together leaders from indigenous broadcasters from around the world. It will mark the inaugural presentation of a lifetime achievement award for indigenous broadcasting.
Scheduled speakers include Patricia Turner, chief executive of National Indigenous TV (NITV) in Australia, and John Walter Jones OBE, chairman of the Welsh Fourth Channel Authority in the United Kingdom.
As part of the event, a World Indigenous Television Broadcasters Network will be launched.
"Indigenous broadcasting is making great progress all over the world with a renewed pride in indigenous issues, cultures and native languages but broadcasters face many questions," stated Maori Television Chief Executive Jim Mather.
Among the questions Mather aims to see addressed at WITBC are questions of identity, language promotion and preservation and the sorts of technical and programming challenges all broadcasters face.
