Spotlight: BRICS media forum to form common info space: Russian media leaders

Russian media leaders expect the first BRICS Media Summit, which begins in Beijing on Tuesday, to discuss closer coordination of activities, formation of common information space and ways to address current challenges.

"I welcome the excellent initiative of Xinhua News Agency in convening this summit. Media structures of BRICS countries will be able to find at the summit new opportunities for collaboration and partnership, strengthen the existing contacts and establish new ones," Mikhail Gusman, first deputy general director of the TASS news agency, told Xinhua.

TASS, as well as Xinhua, has been permanently paying attention to reporting different aspects of BRICS from the very beginning of the bloc's formation, Gusman said.

He called for establishing permanent connections of various media organizations within BRICS, and strengthening those contacts both on bilateral and multilateral basis.

With the theme of "Innovation, Development, Cooperation and Trust," the summit involves 25 media organizations from Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.

First proposed and to be hosted by Xinhua, the summit is jointly organized by the Brazil Communication Company, the Russia Today International News Agency, The Hindu Group and South Africa's Independent Media.

Considering the dramatic changes in information technologies and the information boom brought by the Internet, the BRICS countries should first of all strengthen information exchange, said Dmitry Kiselev, director of Russia Today.

Pavel Negoitsa, director-general of Russian Gazette, urged journalists from BRICS countries to set up more personal contacts with each other in order to expand the views and enhance mutual understanding.

Negoitsa also talked about the creation of a "BRICS media bank" that offers information products in text, photo and video.

BRICS countries share the desire to strengthen economic power and improve well-being of their citizens, Gusman said.

Media should cover the activities of the BRICS nations in a deeper, broader and more objective way, Gusman noted.

Comprehensive and mutually beneficial cooperation of media organizations is needed within BRICS not only to facilitate the reporting, but also to break the domination of Western media.

In this regard, BRICS media should improve the quality of their products and establish contacts with more countries with different points of views, Negoitsa said while calling on every country to drop the ideological confrontation in the field of information.

It is a long-term but worthy efforts for BRICS media to tell more stories on comprehensive aspects of civil society, rather than purely on political and military issues, according to Negoitsa. Endi