Seminar calls for media cooperation to promote common development

The Seminar for Global Political Party Media Leaders, a three-day online forum hosted by the International Department of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, opened on Tuesday in Beijing.

More than 40 persons in charge of media outlets run by 36 political parties from 16 countries, including Cambodia, Tunisia, Turkey, France, Spain and the United Kingdom, attend the event.

In the address he made at the opening ceremony of the seminar, Guo Yezhou, deputy head of the International Department of the CPC Central Committee, said that the CPC has always attached great significance to international communication and publicity work.

He pointed out that against the backdrop of complex changes in the international situation and the accelerating evolution of the information technology revolution, the CPC is willing to strengthen exchanges and mutual learning with political parties from other countries on public opinion and publicity work, expand cooperation between political parties and media, increase the supply of positive information, strengthen the voice of fairness and justice in the world, and promote the development and progress of human civilization.

Guo's remarks were warmly welcomed by other speakers at the opening of the event.

Suos Yara, first vice-chairman of the Commission on External Relations of Cambodian People's Party, advocated to establish a "Political Parties and Media" exchange mechanism and strengthen the partnership between the political parties in the fight against Western media propaganda machines that embrace misinformation, disinformation and fake news.

Yara said: "We all need to work more closely to strengthen our publicity work whereby affiliated journalists and news organizations engage and collaborate with one another on delivering fact-based stories that are fair, accessible, and honest about parties and countries."

He called for the participants of the seminar to build "strategic narratives" and foster closer collaboration among journalists and outlets affiliated with our political parties so that fact-based reporting and analysis can reach wider audiences.

"We need to build the professional capacities of affiliated media of our political parties, as well as promote ethics and professionalism in journalism and media so as to have strong strategic narratives about our political parties and countries," Yara added.

Jacques Cheminade, founder and president of Solidarité & Progrès of France, said the media are quasi-totally under the control of the political and counter-culture of the Anglo-American "narrative". So it is our opposition to such a narrative that catches the eyes of the people.

He observed that there is a latent and great potential in the youth to recast politics towards a true social sovereignty and the common aims of humanity.

"We are entering a very dangerous moment of history and all efforts should be made to know each other much better, because there is, beyond our differences, a unity of humanity, not from a geopolitical standpoint, but from a win-win vision expressed by the best examples of our cultures," said Cheminade. "The basis for a new architecture of peace is to be able to communicate at this level."

Hakan Topkurulu, vice-chairman of the Vatan Party of Turkey, warned that one of the most important attack tools of imperialism is the media. "They are trying to ensure the continuity of their own world order by creating perception through the media, arranging internal turmoil and seducing consciousness."

Topkurulu called for a fight against the corrupting effects of imperialist culture.

He pointed that the media should be at the service of the public, and the public interest against individualism and private interest; should be representative of the Emerging Asian Civilization, Africa and Latin America; and protect and secure human dignity, the independence of countries and socialist morality in data sharing.

Veteran reporters and editors from Xinhua News Agency, China Daily and Hubei media group are also invited to share their views on international communication and new media development with the other participants in the seminar.