Deividas Grabauskas (LRT)
Solidarity means addressing problems together, an approach embraced and promoted by small PSMs in the Baltic region amid growing insecurity following the Ukraine war.
Recognizing the importance of maintaining uninterrupted public awareness during emergency situations, the Baltic public service media (PSM) organizations aimed to develop mutual support mechanisms to ensure business continuity and security during emergencies. This initiative was supported and joined by the Ukrainian PSM company Suspilne.
The formal outcome was a Memorandum of Cooperation (MoC) signed by the heads of the five PSMs – Latvian Television (LTV), Latvian Radio, the Estonian public broadcaster ERR, the Lithuanian national radio and television company (LRT), and Suspilne – on the margins of the EBU General Assembly on 4 July in Cyprus.
Exchange and support
The MoC provides for the exchange of information and knowledge. Partners commit to ensuring the continuity of any signatory PSM that is unable to operate effectively in its home country due to an emergency. Such assistance may include exchanging technical resources and logistical support, among other forms of assistance. In emergency situations, partners may give access to their communication channels and platforms necessary for disseminating information to the public.
In fact, even before the formal signing of the MoC, the Baltic PSMs had intensified their cooperation with Suspilne, which generously shared its first-hand experience of operating in wartime conditions with the EBU partners, including those in the Baltics.
Based on this experience, the Baltic PSMs have been examining the measures needed to better prepare for a possible contingency, taking into account local particularities, not least the tiny territories of the Baltic states. The potential mechanisms of cooperation and mutual support are based on the assumptions below.
Firstly, the Baltic PSMs have similar content production processes and related technologies, which provide for interoperability or even for integrating some of the television, radio, and web functions. Baltic media platforms and broadcast networks can be connected and made into a “three times reserved media network”. Lastly, individual PSMs’ business continuity plans would be improved by enabling media operation from remote locations during crisis situations.
Priority measures
As a result, the mutual support cooperation plan has an extensive list of measures to be worked on and implemented including, among other things:
- Addressing connectivity issues such as retransmissions and communications.
- Consider collaborating to utilize the same data centre located overseas.
- Cooperation on staff training, sharing experiences, and conducting joint emergency exercises.
- Training for the Baltic PSMs to involve emergency scenarios.
- Developing solutions for disaster recovery overseas.
- Launching a pilot project with the involvement of the Baltic PSM CTOs to interconnect the playout and MCRs (master control rooms) of LTV, LRT and ERR in the event of an emergency.
- Developing a list of technical needs and potential media services solutions, including virtual MCR/playout, archives, planning systems and communication tools.
- Jointly establishing a common remote news studio for common use outside the territory of the Baltic States.
- Providing SOC (security operation centre) team reinforcements in the case of cyber threat or attack.
- Provide OB vans for production in cases where the PSMs’ premises are under threat.
- Cooperation with Baltic television tower companies.
Given that EBU Members tend to operate in a very similar way, often face similar issues, and serve similar public interests, we have also approached other EBU Member organizations for similar cooperation. There are many possible ways in which the other EBU Members could enhance each other’s resilience in the event of a crisis.
We hope that this cooperation between the Baltic PSMs will have the potential to expand and embrace more partners and projects and inspire new patterns of regional cooperation.
This article was first published in the September 2024 issue of tech-i magazine.