The 4th Forum on China-Africa Media Cooperation Held in Beijing and a Joint Statement on Further Deepening Exchanges and Cooperation Declared

　　(Photo from internet)

　　The 4th Forum on China-Africa Media Cooperation was held in Beijing on June 26th, 2018. Twelve cooperative agreements were signed between Chinese and African media and a joint statement on further deepening exchanges and cooperation between Chinese and African media was declared.

　　This forum, as one of the supporting activities of the 2018 FOCAC Beijing Summit in September, was to further implement the consensus of the 2015 FOCAC Johannesburg Summit and expand exchanges and cooperation between Chinese and African media industries.

　　Nie Chenxi, Vice Minister of Publicity Department of Central Committee of Communist Party of China and Minister of China’s State Administration of Radio and Television (SART), said in his speech that against the backdrop of a continuously deepening comprehensive strategic and cooperative partnership, opportunities and challenges coexisted for an era of media convergence, China and Africa should continue to uphold the principles of equality, mutual benefits and win-win cooperation, and push forward China-Africa media cooperation to a higher level through strengthening exchanges on media policies, media communications, and cooperation in media industries, thus playing a more significant role in improving people’s well-being and building a community with a shared future for mankind.

　　Dora Siliya, Zambia’s minister of information and broadcasting services, stated in her speech that China was a global leader in internet and digital TV broadcasting. These technologies had been being promoted in Africa, which made more urgent the need of Zambia to learn from China in these sectors. The Forum on China-Africa Media Cooperation offered a platform for the African media to learn lessons from China and seek for development paths that suit their national conditions.

　　Seyoum Mekonen Hailu, CEO of the Ethiopian Broadcasting Corporation, stated that the constantly strengthening China-Africa media cooperation and deepening mutual understandings between them were conducive to telling “China’s stories” and “Africa’s stories” well, and would promote China-Africa relations.

　　The Joint Statement on Further Deepening Exchanges and Cooperation declared a consensus that China and African countries would take the opportunity of the 2018 FOCAC Beijing Summit and intensify policy dialogues, deepen cooperation in key areas as news coverage, content creation and channel building. They would further strengthen media exchanges and cooperation within the framework of FOCAC by lending each other a helping hand and speaking in one voice on major regional and international hotspot issues.

　　More than 400 government officials and delegates of media organizations from China and African countries attended the forum, they had in-depth discussions on such issues as “China-Africa media policies”, “China-Africa Discourse Power Construction”, “China-Africa media digitalization and content development”.

　　(Source: xinhuanet.com)