In the Asia-Pacific region, climate-related disasters are growing in frequency and intensity, threatening lives, infrastructure, and sustainable development. The role of media as a trusted source of information, education, and early warning has never been more critical.
As the Digital Radio Mondiale (DRM) standard has a wide recognition and use in the Asia-Pacific region, the Emergency Warning Functionality (EWF) of DRM will feature during this ABU-UNESCO event to be held in Sri Lanka. The 2025 edition of this media summit (November 25-27) with the theme “Building Resilience Through Media: For a Cleaner, Greener, and Safer Tomorrow” will be hosted by Sri Lanka Rupavahini Corporation (SLRC) in Colombo. It will bring together media leaders, climate and disaster response authorities, scientists, and civil society to accelerate joint action for resilience. Matthew Phillips, a senior member of the DRM Steering Board, will participate in one of the key sessions of the summit.
He is Product Director for Broadcast and Maritime at CML Micro, a company specialising in wireless IC design. He has been directly involved in the development and launch of CML’s DRM1000 module, the smallest, lowest-cost, and lowest-power DRM receiver module available, with the potential to significantly improve the accessibility of DRM radios globally.
He will speak on 26/11 | 14:45 – 15:30 | Strengthening Media’s Role in Early Warnings and Emergency Communication | Focus on Radio. This session will explore how broadcasters—especially radio—can enhance their role in early warning dissemination and emergency response to save lives and reduce disaster impacts. Mr Phillips will stress that in times of disaster it is incorrect to imagine things will be business as usual and that our ‘normal situation’ infrastructure is enough.
He will explain that DRM has the unique capacity to disseminate information on the disaster effectively from ‘safe’, out of affected area, locations and do it while using familiar simple and low-cost devices. The DRM Consortium believes that radio broadcasting remains a ‘trusted media’ source in many places, much more than the internet. Using this fact, along with supplying data-rich, multi-lingual, and complete information as enabled by DRM, gives broadcasters a unique role in giving all life-saving warnings that are reliable, timely, and clearly understood by all audiences.
One of the key highlights of the 9th ABU Media Summit on Climate Action and Disaster Prevention will be the official launch of the UNESCO Model Disaster Preparedness and Response Plan (DPRP) for Media Institutions, developed in cooperation with ABU. This structured framework will enable broadcasters to integrate resilience into their editorial, operational, and policy practices — ensuring that media continues to save lives and safeguard communities.
CADP 2025 will be fully livestreamed, making it easy for ABU members who cannot attend in person and viewers around the world to follow the event as it happens. The stream will start at 8.45 AM (Sri Lanka Time) on 25 and 26 November 2025 at this link: CADP 2025 Live.
