China-Africa media cooperation -- a joint force for truth
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For more than 150 years, global information has flown in the opposite direction of wealth: The latter is normally from the poor to the rich while the former is evidently the other way round.
For decades, developing countries have fought what appeared to be a losing battle against Western dominance in global information flow. Thanks to the epochal rise of the developing world, a rebalancing is hopefully taking place.
That change is setting the stage for China and Africa to have their voices heard and tell the true stories happening in their parts of the world.
It was against this backdrop that Li Changchun, China's top publicity administrator, sat down at a seminar in Nairobi on Thursday with members of Chinese and African media communities to explore ways of boosting China-African journalistic exchanges.
Although they are geographically far apart, China and Africa have long learned about each other through Western media. However, Western reports did not always reflect the truth, said Li, who is a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC).
Therefore, it is necessary for the two media communities to establish direct links, the senior Chinese official said.
For decades, developing countries have fought what appeared to be a losing battle against Western dominance in global information flow. Thanks to the epochal rise of the developing world, a rebalancing is hopefully taking place.
That change is setting the stage for China and Africa to have their voices heard and tell the true stories happening in their parts of the world.
It was against this backdrop that Li Changchun, China's top publicity administrator, sat down at a seminar in Nairobi on Thursday with members of Chinese and African media communities to explore ways of boosting China-African journalistic exchanges.
Although they are geographically far apart, China and Africa have long learned about each other through Western media. However, Western reports did not always reflect the truth, said Li, who is a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC).
Therefore, it is necessary for the two media communities to establish direct links, the senior Chinese official said.
WESTERN DOMINANCE AND BIASWestern media outlets have played a dominant role in global information flow and in setting news agendas, thus shaping public opinion on a wide variety of issues, according to a 2009 article published in Qiushi (Seeking Truth), a semimonthly journal of the CPC Central Committee.
Western media organizations, with their vast financial resources, have deployed reporters worldwide to collect information that fits within the framework of Western values, and then disseminated those stories to countries that could not afford to send their own news staff overseas, the journal said.
By monopolizing the global news market, Western media organizations had marginalized voices from the rest of the world. Western media groups produced more than 90 percent of international news stories, it said.
Using their dominant position, Western media outlets tended to project negative images of developing nations such as China and African countries.
Back in 2005, Rwandan President Paul Kagame slammed Western media for portraying Africa as a continent beset with bad governance, civil wars, and other ills while ignoring the positive developments in the region.
Referring to negative Western reports concerning Africa, former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo once said some people would describe a glass partially filled with water as "half full" while others with ulterior motives would call it "half empty."
As a matter of fact, Western media organizations have long described Africa as the "dark continent" or the "failed continent," a vast land plagued by war, diseases and corruption.
Nicholas Kristof, a New York Times reporter, won a Pulitzer Prize for his in-depth reports about the crisis in Sudan's Darfur area.
In his writings, Kristof called Africa "the continent where nothing, or almost nothing, works."
Meanwhile, Western journalists rarely have positive views about China. They label China as "neo-colonialist" or an "energy-predator" because of its booming economic ties with Africa.
Yet many Africans do not see things that way. South African President Jacob Zuma said during a visit to China last August that describing China's engagement with Africa as "neo-colonialism" was untruthful.
Pierre Essama Essomba, president of the Media Council of Cameroon, said that past Western colonizers left "nothing good in our country." By contrast, he said, China has helped Cameroon build conference centers, schools, hospitals and highways in the past three decades.
Many people in China and Africa think that the moment has come for their countries to project their own images. And the only possible way to break the Western monopoly, they say, is through China-Africa media cooperation.
Western media organizations, with their vast financial resources, have deployed reporters worldwide to collect information that fits within the framework of Western values, and then disseminated those stories to countries that could not afford to send their own news staff overseas, the journal said.
By monopolizing the global news market, Western media organizations had marginalized voices from the rest of the world. Western media groups produced more than 90 percent of international news stories, it said.
Using their dominant position, Western media outlets tended to project negative images of developing nations such as China and African countries.
Back in 2005, Rwandan President Paul Kagame slammed Western media for portraying Africa as a continent beset with bad governance, civil wars, and other ills while ignoring the positive developments in the region.
Referring to negative Western reports concerning Africa, former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo once said some people would describe a glass partially filled with water as "half full" while others with ulterior motives would call it "half empty."
As a matter of fact, Western media organizations have long described Africa as the "dark continent" or the "failed continent," a vast land plagued by war, diseases and corruption.
Nicholas Kristof, a New York Times reporter, won a Pulitzer Prize for his in-depth reports about the crisis in Sudan's Darfur area.
In his writings, Kristof called Africa "the continent where nothing, or almost nothing, works."
Meanwhile, Western journalists rarely have positive views about China. They label China as "neo-colonialist" or an "energy-predator" because of its booming economic ties with Africa.
Yet many Africans do not see things that way. South African President Jacob Zuma said during a visit to China last August that describing China's engagement with Africa as "neo-colonialism" was untruthful.
Pierre Essama Essomba, president of the Media Council of Cameroon, said that past Western colonizers left "nothing good in our country." By contrast, he said, China has helped Cameroon build conference centers, schools, hospitals and highways in the past three decades.
Many people in China and Africa think that the moment has come for their countries to project their own images. And the only possible way to break the Western monopoly, they say, is through China-Africa media cooperation.
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CALL FOR MORE CHINA-AFRICA MEDIA COOPERATIONLi, who is currently visiting Africa, laid out several proposals at the Nairobi seminar what the Chinese media should do to facilitate cooperation with their African counterparts.
The Chinese government, he said, has already incorporated China-Africa media cooperation into their overall relationship.
He said Chinese and African media should cover each other's social and economic developments and other issues in a comprehensive and truthful way. The media, Li said, should contribute to the countries' mutual understanding and friendship.
Li encouraged media organizations from China and Africa to build partnerships to push forward resource sharing, promote training, exchange broadcasting programs and increase technology transfer.
He noted that China has already provided training for 208 African reporters and media administrators since 2004.
China, Li said, intends to continue offering African media organizations technological support and training opportunities.
He also encouraged African media outlets to open newsrooms in China and provide live news coverage from China.
As a matter of fact, since the 1950s, the Chinese media organizations have conducted frequent exchanges with their African counterparts through seminars and workshops, and donated equipment such as computers and cameras to them.
At a summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation in 2006, President Hu Jintao and leaders from 48 African nations pledged to encourage more media exchanges over the following decade.
Media cooperation between China and Africa has not only developed in traditional areas, but also is tapping potential in the field of new media.
During his visit in Kenya, Li inaugurated the Xinhua Mobile Newspaper, the first-ever mobile newspaper in sub-Saharan Africa. The joint venture with a local telecom company enables about 17 million Kenyan mobile subscribers to receive news from China's Xinhua News Agency via Multimedia Messaging Service.
The Chinese government, he said, has already incorporated China-Africa media cooperation into their overall relationship.
He said Chinese and African media should cover each other's social and economic developments and other issues in a comprehensive and truthful way. The media, Li said, should contribute to the countries' mutual understanding and friendship.
Li encouraged media organizations from China and Africa to build partnerships to push forward resource sharing, promote training, exchange broadcasting programs and increase technology transfer.
He noted that China has already provided training for 208 African reporters and media administrators since 2004.
China, Li said, intends to continue offering African media organizations technological support and training opportunities.
He also encouraged African media outlets to open newsrooms in China and provide live news coverage from China.
As a matter of fact, since the 1950s, the Chinese media organizations have conducted frequent exchanges with their African counterparts through seminars and workshops, and donated equipment such as computers and cameras to them.
At a summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation in 2006, President Hu Jintao and leaders from 48 African nations pledged to encourage more media exchanges over the following decade.
Media cooperation between China and Africa has not only developed in traditional areas, but also is tapping potential in the field of new media.
During his visit in Kenya, Li inaugurated the Xinhua Mobile Newspaper, the first-ever mobile newspaper in sub-Saharan Africa. The joint venture with a local telecom company enables about 17 million Kenyan mobile subscribers to receive news from China's Xinhua News Agency via Multimedia Messaging Service.
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MORE EFFORTS NEEDEDHowever, Chinese journalists have yet to catch up with their Western counterparts in Africa, even though they have made substantial progress, said Bob Wekesa, editorial director of Kenya Today.
Over the past decade, China and Africa have done much to expand their trade ties. China-Africa trade in 2000 stood at 10 billion U.S. dollars. The figure skyrocketed to 126.9 billion dollars in 2010, according to figures of the Chinese Ministry of Commerce.
Nonetheless, compared to surging trade links, press cooperation between China and Africa has been advancing at a slower pace, observers said.
Ridwan Laher, head of South Africa's African Institute, said China's rapidly growing economy and presence in Africa have increased his country's need for news about China.
Average African readers, because of the Western media's dominant position, usually get their news about China from Western news coverage. However, many Africans have started to realize that they are consuming too much Western news and too little from their own national media organizations or from China.
Kabareng Solomon, director of Botswana's Information Services Department, said Botswana has been relying on Western media for a long time. "We know it is not good to accept a one-sided perspective," she said.
Solomon said her country's Daily News and Botswana Press Agency have signed agreements with Xinhua in order to gain a different perspective about Africa, China and the rest of the world.
Maina Muiruri, vice editor-in-chief of the Kenyan newspaper The People Daily, said that compared with Western news agencies, Chinese media reports on Africa were more comprehensive, objective and accurate.
Meanwhile, he hoped Chinese media could provide more information about China's enterprises, especially those that have business ties with the African continent.
Lydia Shiloya, deputy head of Kenya News Agency, said China-Africa media cooperation could improve by hiring more locals.
"Chinese media in the future could have more local people work for them who better understand the local scenario and could better serve the grassroots in Africa," Shiloya said.
Building a permanent media exchange mechanism is also what both sides expect in the future.
Kwendo Opanga, executive editor of the Nairobi-based East African Standard Magazine, said China and Africa should expand and institutionalize journalistic exchange programs.
Opanga also said Africa expects to learn from China's media technological advances.
Li said Thursday that the traditional friendship between China and Africa has created favorable conditions for closer media cooperation in the future.
With joint efforts, it is hoped that China-Africa media cooperation can provide the missing pieces of the puzzle when it comes to presenting readers with the real picture. (Additional reporting by Tan Jingjing, Deng Yushan and Wei Jianhua)
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