Archive notice: This article was originally published on May 26, 2008. Links and embedded videos are preserved as part of the historical record.
ZDF Director General Markus Schächter and Ibrahim Sahin, Director General of Turkish broadcaster TRT, agreed in Ankara to intensify cooperation between the two public broadcasters. Especially in view of Turkish-speaking population groups in Germany and ZDF’s integration efforts, Schächter said it was important to work on joint television formats serving intercultural and interreligious dialogue.
The broadcasters are considering stronger involvement of Turkish guests in “Forum am Freitag,” as well as features on Turkey in cultural programmes such as the 3sat magazine “Kulturzeit.”
Given ZDF’s many years of experience in children’s news and programming for young viewers, it also intends to support the establishment of TRT’s own children’s channel, due to launch at the end of the year. Formats comparable to “Logo!” or “Pur” would also be conceivable at TRT, Schächter said. The broadcasters also plan to examine which forms of cooperation in sports coverage and fictional programming can be implemented.
Since the beginning of the previous year, ZDF has broadcast its own German-language formats on the pan-European channels of private Turkish media group Dogan TV, to reach the Turkish-origin population in Germany with information from Germany and Europe by this route as well.
