CRI hosts media leaders at Boao Forum for Asia

Media leaders from around the Asia-Pacific have been meeting at the Boao Forum for Asia annual conference in China to discuss innovation and responsibility of media in the digital age.

Hosted by China Radio International and the Beijing Film Academy, the roundtable was held in Boao Town in Hainan Province, the southernmost province in China.

Some 20 media leaders from China, Singapore, South Korea, India, Australia, Laos, Cambodia and Myanmar took part.

There was general agreement on the importance of the principle of content as a priority and that traditional media and new media should enhance cooperation to ensure win-win situations.

The Chinese Government proposed cooperating to build a ‘Silk Road Economic Belt’ connecting Europe and Asia and a ‘Marine Silk Road’ in the 21st century, which would bring new opportunities for media cooperation and development in Asia. 

Mr Wang Gengnian, Chairman of the Media Leaders Roundtable and President of CRI, said he believed that the world’s media were interconnected by online data, that everything was data, and all data was online. He said the key word in new media innovation was ‘integration’, which meant radio, TV, newspapers, magazines and mobile media would be integrated via the Internet.

Mr Han Wooduck, Director of the Institute for Chinese Studies of JoongAngIlbo, said media should get rid of passive reporting and play an active role in creating public opinion. He proposed that major Asian media should work proactively to build a platform for discussing peace, exchange and cooperation within the region.

Mr Chen Juhong, corporate vice president of Tencent, said the key to development was knowing where clients were and being brave enough to challenge their own comfort zones so as to secure development in future competition.

Mr Wang added that media from all countries, regardless of their form, cultural difference, level and size, should share successful experiences and work together to address challenges and seek common development.

He said CRI would strengthen cooperation with countries in Asia to build a multilingual media platform, working with mainstream media in Asia to build the Asian Media Alliance and organising a number of events such as all-media international cultural exchanges for the ‘New Marine Silk Road’ to establish a valuable international media cooperation platform.