Commentary: Developing countries need to have louder voice in changing world

With more than 80 percent of the world's population in developing countries, and the combined gross domestic product surpassing that of the developed ones, it is a natural trend for media groups from the developing world to have greater say for their countries and peoples.

For a long time, global information flow has been dominated by Western powers, and the voices of developing countries have largely gone unheard.

Although the advanced economies did bring about innovation and investment that have helped developing countries, damage and pains were also caused along the way.

A volatile Middle East haunted by deadly conflicts, a divided Europe flooded with refugees and migrants, and a world in fear of rampant terrorism and extremism, are all direct and indirect results of Western interventionism and their ill-conceived, self-centered political agendas.

However, few Western media outlets care to reflect upon their countries' part in the world's problems. On the contrary, many of them feel comfortable enough to take an arrogant position of lecturing the less developed world on almost everything.

What is more disturbing is that some mainstream Western media have chosen to distort truth and twist facts when covering countries they do not approve of.

Therefore, in the absence of objective and fair coverage on many international and regional hot-spot issues, news organizations around the world have upon their shoulders the historical mission of building a more equitable and just international communication order.

In this respect, it is of great urgency for media groups of developing countries to unite to made themselves heard and work with their counterparts in the developed world so as to pioneer the reform of international communication order.

At the just concluded World Media Summit in Doha, Qatar, around 350 media leaders from 100 countries and regions exchanged views and experience on global communication and future cooperation.

Against the backdrop of globalization and multi-polarization, the international order is experiencing profound change, while sluggish global economic recovery, mounting threats from terrorism and global warming are posing new challenges to the whole world.

World media should demonstrate their responsibility in serving public interest by creating a positive, healthy and harmonious public opinion environment, as well as preventing the spread of extremism and terrorism, especially on new-media platforms.

Meanwhile, they should also make due contributions to promoting unity and consensus in covering hot issues, including global warming, refugee crisis and poverty reduction. Endi