Maarifa: Sharing education, training and audiovisual innovation

An innovative educational project - On 6 April 2010, under the aegis of the Cultural Council of the Union for the Mediterranean, France Télévisions and its educational initiatives department, its subsidiary Canal France International (CFI) and the Arab States Broadcasting Union (ASBU) launched the project called MAARIFA, which means “knowledge” in Arabic.

The goal of this project is to strengthen audiovisual production in educational programming for Mediterranean and Arab World broadcasters. It is also an example of multilateral, multicultural cooperation for these countries.

Maarifa has a budget of €500,000, and aims to help these stations to provide young TV viewers access to new educational media. This audience accounts for 45% of the population the channels serve.

Etienne Fiatte explained, "Given the great educational opportunities offered by new digital media, CFI is getting involved and showing a new way to collaborate adapted to these sources. Maarifa looks set to accomplish two of CFI’s main objectives: strengthening ties with the Arab world and training journalists to harness the power of digital media" .

Support tailored to their needs

As part of the call for projects that ended on 15 June 2010, ten projects were proposed by the many media partners in the Mediterranean: Algeria, Jordan, Morocco, the Palestinian Territories, Syria and Yemen. The three projects selected will receive support from CFI and France Télévisions tailored to their specific needs, from programme writing to broadcasting, until December 2011.

CFI, France Télévisions and its educational initiatives department will put together five personalised groups of experts to work with each station from programme creation and writing to pilot production. Between each mission, three group seminars will be held to share experience and know-how, and to assess the progress of each team.