Chinese President Xi Jinping sent a congratulatory letter to the fourth World Media Summit, which kicked off in Beijing on Monday.
Xi's letter expounded on how the world media can better shoulder social responsibilities and build up consensus, which injects fresh impetus into global media exchanges and cooperation, the promotion of the common values of mankind, and the building of a community with a shared future for mankind, foreign media professionals have said.
The congratulatory letter sent by Xi is a significant boost for the media summit, said Narasimhan Ram, director of The Hindu Publishing Group.
The letter is testimony to the importance China attaches to the professional role and social responsibility of the news media in "seeking correct answers to the major questions of our times and building wide consensus around the world," said Ram, who is also a presidium member of the summit.
Xi's letter "resonated well with the insights, experiences and learnings exchanged by presidium members and other speakers," Ram said.
Reading Xi's letter, Hu Lanbo, director of Cina in Italia magazine, said media professionals know what kind of social responsibilities they should shoulder.
Today, there is greater need for media professionals to deliver an unbiased message, and the summit has further strengthened their confidence, said Hu.
Such gatherings as the summit have helped achieve "a kind of communication, exchange of ideas and cooperation between media outlets, especially in developing countries and China," said Tarek el-Sonoty, deputy editor-in-chief of Egypt's state-run Al-Ahram newspaper.
Remi Godeau, editor-in-chief of the Paris-based newspaper Opinion, said "What is important is the need to defend information based on facts and truths in the context of an abundance of negative information. Because the truth of facts is the base for many things, such as good performance of economy, good governance and good choices made by individuals."