The opening ceremony of the BRICS Media Forum is held in Beijing, capital of China, June 8, 2017. (Xinhua/Shen Bohan)
BEIJING, June 9 (Xinhua) -- Cooperation among media outlets of BRICS countries will be beneficial to the spreading of new thinking and enhance mutual understanding and friendship among BRICS peoples, media professionals said during a recent forum in Beijing.
Initiated by China's Xinhua News Agency and mainstream media outlets in Brazil, Russia, India and South Africa among others, the BRICS Media Forum, held on June 6-8, gathered leaders of 27 major media organizations from BRICS countries.
They launched an Action Plan to Strengthen Cooperation Among BRICS Media, aimed at making joint efforts to balance international opinions, enhancing the social responsibility of media, and deepen understanding among the peoples of BRICS countries.
Further exchanges and cooperation among BRICS media are needed so as to enable BRICS peoples to gain more objective information and new thinking of BRICS countries, Evandro Menezes de Carvalho, an international law professor at think tank Fundacao Getulio Vargas of Brazil, told Xinhua.
He noted that it remains popular even nowadays for some emerging economies to gain news sources mainly from media outlets of developed countries.
"It is necessary for BRICS media to discover and reveal differences and commonalities of BRICS countries," he said, "It will be a great contribution made by BRICS media to the world."
Eleonora Genen, a reporter of Rossiyskaya Gazeta, a Russian government daily newspaper, expressed similar views, saying it is crucial for BRICS media to strengthen cooperation as BRICS countries hope their citizens to read and watch objective and verified international news stories.
"Therefore, we expect that the forum in Beijing will enhance unity and cooperation among BRICS media, promote information exchanges and sharing of news through the pool of all kinds of news information and sources," Genen added.
Macros de Oliveira, editor-in-chief of Brazilian daily Monitor Mercantil, also agreed that BRICS media should improve direct communication, the sharing of news information and people-to-people exchanges.
"It will be beneficial to not only mutual understanding of BRICS countries, but also cooperation among all emerging market countries," he said.
A range of major media outlets in India, such as Press Trust of India, Asia News International, Business Standard, and India Perspectives among others, also covered the forum.
They expressed expectations to push forward innovation of BRICS media and enhance the impartiality of public opinions of the international community through an improved dialogue platform and effective coordination system for BRICS media.
