Delegates attend the first BRICS Media Summit in Beijing, capital of China, Dec. 1, 2015. Leaders of 25 media organizations from BRICS countries met to seek cooperation at the summit that opened here on Tuesday morning. (Photo/Xinhua)
Leaders of the media from BRICS countries have called for better cooperation and upgrading of information technology to secure greater power in international affairs and break western media domination at a forum in Beijing on Tuesday.
Representatives of major media from Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa gathered in the Chinese capital for the first session of the BRICS Media Summit amid hosted by China's Xinhua News Agency.
The forum was co-chaired by the Brazil Communication Company, the Russia Today International News Agency, the Hindu Group and South Africa's Independent Media.
With the theme "Innovation, Development, Cooperation and Trust," the summit involves 25 media organizations from BRICS counties.
Liu Qibao, head of the publicity department of the CPC Central Committee said there should be confidence among all members within the bloc and continuous publicity of achievements by BRICS countries is needed amid the western world's doubt over group cooperation and predictions of "BRICS declining" as the group is undergoing economic growth slowdown.
"The five countries are like five fingers. United, we are like a powerful fist," said Liu.
The group was founded in 2009 with Brazil, Russia, India and China, the four largest emerging economies. South Africa joined the next year to form the current "BRICS" group, named after the capital letters of the five countries.
A meeting of the presidium issued six proposals including setting up a BRICS news liaison and sending more journalists to one another's country on Monday, according to Cai Mingzhao, president of Xinhua News Agency and executive chairman of the forum.
"One of my old colleagues who has been corresponding from India told me people from our two countries know about each other through government releases for 20 years," said Cai. "Now they learn about each other more through the media."
N. Ram, chairman and publisher of the Hindu Group of Newspapers, said a book about how Chinese and India media can get to know each other better, compiled by Indian media researchers, will be published soon.
"This book will help us know better about the different ways of media operation, of each other and what we can do to understand and tolerant each other," said Ram.
Dmitry Kiselev, director general of International Information Agency "Rossiaya Segodnya" proposed setting up a BRICS information platform to share official and correct information from members of the group.
"For most of the time we learn about one another through western media, who are not always reporting the right thing. Now we need a common information space within the bloc."
Kiselev's point was echoed by Qu Yingpu, deputy editor-in-chief of China Daily, who said biased reports by western media of developing countries are still making trouble.
"The west focuses on issues like environment and stadium construction about the 2014 Rio World Cup. In China-India relations, they just pay attention to territorial disputes between the two countries," Qu said.
Zhang Yesui, China's vice minister of Foreign Affairs said BRICS media needs to tell more stories about emerging market economies.
According to Zhang, BRICS countries boast a population of 3 billion and contribute 25.77 percent of world GDP this year, compared with that of 16.02 percent in its first year.
