The 6th BRICS Media Forum was held in Johannesburg, South Africa, from Aug. 18 to 20, 2023.
This forum was a high-level media dialogue meeting held before the BRICS Summit in Johannesburg, at a time when the building of high-quality partnerships among BRICS member countries is being promoted and the “BRICS Plus” cooperation continues to expand.
Included in the 2023 BRICS meeting agenda, the forum was jointly organized by China’s Xinhua News Agency, China Energy, and relevant departments of South Africa.
The theme of the forum was “BRICS and Africa: Strengthening Media Dialogue for a Shared and Unbiased Future.”
Representatives of the participating media and organizations conducted in-depth discussions on three topics — Championing Justice: Media’s Role in Shaping a New World Order; Strengthening Exchanges: Media’s Recipe in Invigorating Africa’s Growth; and Fostering Innovation: Media’s Duty in Driving Green Development.
The participants reviewed the achievements that BRICS media had made through practical cooperation since the last forum.
They had successfully held the second BRICS media online training course to enhance professionalism and ability of media practitioners in BRICS countries and promote exchanges, mutual learning, and joint development of BRICS media, and they had held the 4th BRICS Media Joint Photo Exhibition online, displaying the natural scenery, folk customs, development achievements, and cooperation results of BRICS countries from multiple perspectives.
The participants generally believed that after more than a decade of development, BRICS countries had become a model for uniting emerging-market and developing countries, promoting South-South cooperation, and injecting positive, stable, and constructive forces into world peace and development.
Faced with drastic changes unseen in a century, the world expects to hear a stronger voice from BRICS countries and see them play a greater role in promoting global multi-polarity, economic globalization, and democracy in international relations.
BRICS countries’ media must work hand in hand with African countries’ media to demonstrate responsibility for their shared mission and commit themselves to creating a solid synergy to consolidate the foundation for public opinion, build consensus among the media of emerging and developing countries, and extend the influence of the BRICS mechanism.
To further enhance cooperation among media of BRICS countries, the BRICS Media Forum is committed to supporting and promoting BRICS countries’ media in carrying out the following concerted actions with African countries’ media based on the principles of joint development and mutual benefit:
1. Tell BRICS stories well to enhance the global influence of BRICS cooperation. We shall adhere to comprehensive, objective, and fair reporting as we demonstrate the BRICS countries’ achievements and contributions in boosting the economy, poverty alleviation, food security, climate change, digital governance, and green development.
We shall be good narrators of the BRICS countries’ wonderful stories of advocating peaceful development, upholding fairness and justice, and building a beautiful world to enhance the global influence of the BRICS cooperation mechanism.
We shall focus on topics of common concern and organize joint interviews, increase the reprint and publication of press stories, enhance communication effectiveness, and raise the voice of BRICS through interlinking on websites, publishing themed or special editions, establishing country-specific columns, and posting news stories on social media.
2. Implement the “three initiatives” and promote the common values of humanity and the concept of a community with a shared future for humanity. We shall implement the Global Development Initiative, the Global Security Initiative, and the Global Civilization Initiative, disseminate the aspirations of the peoples of BRICS countries for peace, development, and cooperation, and showcase the economic growth, social progress, and cultural prosperity of BRICS countries.
We shall enable views of the BRICS to play a more significant role in guiding international public opinion, coordinate our voices on essential regional and global issues, and effectively refute distorted reports and fake news in a joint effort to maintain a sound international communication order and help enhance the representation and the voice of emerging-market and developing countries in global affairs.
3. Advocate green and environmental-friendly philosophy to promote sustained development. We shall fulfill the social responsibility of BRICS media to put the idea of building a community of all life on Earth into practice, enhance worldwide public awareness of and engagement in environmental protection, promote harmonious coexistence between humans and nature, and work together to build a cleaner and more beautiful world.
We shall demonstrate the success of BRICS countries in developing clean energy and accelerating green and low-carbon transformation. We shall also promote a win-win situation of economic and social development and livelihood improvement in the BRICS countries to boost the sustainable economic development of emerging-market and developing countries.
4. Focus more on covering the challenges shared by BRICS and African countries. We should provide objective and comprehensive coverage of global food security issues including those related to food prices and supply chains.
By providing timly and accurate information to the general public, media outlets in the BRICS countries should jointly contribute to reducing damages to the most vulnerable actors and to global food security.
5. Consolidate pragmatic cooperation to promote the high-quality development of the BRICS Media Forum mechanism. The BRICS Media Forum shall continue implementing the “BRICS Plus” cooperation model by gradually having more media from emerging-market and developing countries join us so we can consolidate and expand BRICS media’s circle of friends.
We shall expand pragmatic cooperation in various fields, such as news reporting, think-tank exchanges, information services, personnel training, and digital media.
We shall promote media cooperation under the forum mechanism to achieve substantial results and start a new journey of high-quality development of the forum mechanism.