Chinese and Japanese media can do more to improve relations between the two countries by utilizing their advantage in resources, the head of a leading English-language newspaper said yesterday.

"Helping Sino-Japanese ties break through brambles and thorns of history and reality will be a long-term challenge," Zhu Ling, editor-in-chief of China Daily, said at the opening of the Beijing-Tokyo Forum of 2005 in Beijing.

"All responsible media organizations in both countries should bear the inescapable task of working voluntarily to deepen mutual understanding and exchanges."

Studies indicate that the majority of the public in China and Japan acquired their understanding of each other's country mainly through newspaper reporting and TV programmes, the editor-in-chief said.

Therefore, bilateral relations can be substantially influenced if the media in both countries are fair and objective in reporting on the other side.

The above-mentioned ideas became the consensus of China Daily, Genron NPO of Japan and Peking University, which were then materialized into the forum, he said.

Zhu said a co-operative agreement has been reached primarily between the newspaper and Genron NPO of Japan to enable the forum to become a regular exchange mechanism between the two nations in the next 10 years.

Being the only national English-language newspaper in the nation, China Daily has always adhered to the purpose of "letting the world know more about China" since its establishment in 1981, the editor-in-chief said.

(China Daily 08/24/2005 page5)