From Mahnoor Makhdoom
BEIJING: The 2nd Belt and Road Initiative Journalists was held in Beijing. The forum was organized by Communications University of China in collaboration with China Radio International (CRI) and All-China Journalists Association. The event was participated by over one hundred active journalists from 47 countries that are member States of BRI.
Speaking at the occasion, the President of the All-China Journalists Association Zhang Yannong said that China will continue to enhance media cooperation with countries and regions participating in the BRI. He said that since the BRI has been widely reported by media outlets in Belt and Road countries, and that coverage has contributed to constructive cooperation among these countries. Zhang further said that All-China Journalists Association had planned to further promote long-term cooperation with media associations in Belt and Road countries, including personnel training, content sharing and technological cooperation.
In his speech, Vice President of CRI, Hu Bangsheng said that masses in the BRI Member countries were of different ethnic groups, having different religious beliefs and speaking more than 50 languages. “now this poses the real challenges to media as they report on the initiative”, said Hu. He further stated that It was impossible for the different countries to have unified views, but the media could have empathy for different cultures and be committed to factual reporting.
At the occasion, President of the Confederation of ASEAN Journalists, Thepchai Yong said that the media had an important role in enhancing people-to-people communication in the increasingly connected world, and it was the duty of the media to better inform the people of current events. He further said that there enough room for more cooperation among media outlets of Belt and Road countries because the profession is universal.
In his address, President of the Federation of African Journalists, Abdulwaheed Odusile said that African nations were still conceived as Third World countries by Western media as the coverage is often found to be biased. He said that it was important for African journalists to tell their stories from their perspective and with their narratives.
The participants of the Forum are now set to leave for Xiamen for further interaction with Chinese counterparts and to know more about China’s development and connectivity plans.
The BRI Journalists Forum is regarded as a very successful platform for communication and mutual learning among journalists, politicians, businesspeople and scholars from around the world. It provide all the journalists from BRI Member States to share their views and exchange ideas for promotion of BRI and to get maximum benefits from this great initiative for the human development and economic uplift. The participating journalists hailed the organizers the CUC, the CRI and All-China Journalists Association for provision of such an amazing opportunity to exchange views and to explore further collaborations from this platform.
