The scenic city of Cape Town, South Africa, is accustomed to hosting tourist gatherings against the backdrop of majestic Table Mountain, but it is not often media organizations gather at the tip of Africa. On December 1, the people who produce the news became the news, when the city played host to the inaugural China-Africa Media Summit.
Hosted by the State Council Information Office of China, the Summit adopted the theme - A New Win-Win Media Cooperation between China and Africa, which served to focus the attention of leaders from 120 media organizations operating in China and across Africa, to deliberate on the critical role the "fourth estate" plays in assisting with the Sino-African strategic partnership.
Giving the keynote speech at the Summit, Jiang Jianguo, Minister of the State Council Information Office of China, was optimistic about media cooperation. He said the Chinese and African media communities shoulder an important mission to promote mutual understanding.
"To fulfill this mission, you friends from the media have travelled from far and wide to gather in Cape Town to push the media community on both sides to continue working together on previous achievements," said Jiang, who called the media the "propeller" of China-Africa cooperation.
Emphasizing the need to give coverage to areas like industrialization, agricultural modernization, infrastructure construction and peace and security, Jiang said, "Chinese and African media should make concerted efforts to apply the new concepts and thoughts about win-win cooperation to every aspect of China-Africa cooperation."
In his opening address, Jeff Radebe, South Africa's Minister in the Presidency, said the understanding that media should drive development often suffers because Africa is stereotyped as a continent of doom and gloom. He told the Summit that while there was no getting away from the fact that poverty and conflict were realities, it was the duty of media to also tell the good stories that would help change the negative narrative to an Africa that is a land of opportunities and potential.
"I would like to urge all types of media to take advantage of the new 'Information Technology Revolution' that has emerged in Africa, whereby more than 80 percent of her citizens are now connected to cell-phones and related mobile technologies," he said.
Radebe pointed out that this was an opportunity for media to contribute to development and positive behavioural change by publishing content that is not only informative, but also educational, empowering, and liberating to individuals and communities.
He made the observation that the partnership between media leaders of Africa and China was an initiative that defied all the naysayers and pessimists, and by entering into an optimistic Sino-African strategic partnership it would seek to bring about new ways of doing business in this terrain.
In addressing the questions that arise about how best the media can work in the same direction, to coincide with blossoming trade and political ties between China and Africa, Jiang suggested four proposals: upholding the theme of China-Africa cooperation and development; jointly consolidating public support for China-Africa friendship; creating a landscape that that airs coordinated voices; and deepening practical exchanges between Chinese and African media.
On the last proposal, Jiang highlighted, as examples, the important roles that digital Chinese TV giant StarTimes and Africa's leading multinational media group Naspers are playing in their insight and investment in China-Africa cultural communication. Naspers owns a 34 percent share in Tencent, one of China's largest and most used Internet service portals.
Speaking at the Summit, Naspers Chairman Koos Bekker said there was a need to better respect China culturally. Bekker said historically there was a gap between cultural and economic power and that to do business with others required the understanding of the other party. He said in Africa there was still the aspiration to be European as opposed to being Chinese. Hinting at the role of media growth, Bekker said knowledge leads to understanding and in the long-term understanding leads to loyalty.
Loyal consumers are important to any business, including media. And so is accurate reporting, something touched on by Li Yafang, Interim President of BEIJING REVIEW, China's premier English news weekly and publisher of the monthly magazine ChinAfrica, dedicated to Sino-African affairs. Li said that an important area, where media cooperation was vital, is accurate reporting on Chinese companies in Africa, something which her organization and others in China we dedicated to addressing.
"In response to the distorted news of Western media we will faithfully reflect the management path, successful experience and social responsibility performance of [Chinese] companies in Africa … so as to promote understanding and support from African people to Chinese investment," said Li.
A recurring theme expressed by Amadou Vamoulke, Director General of Cameroon Radio and Television, and other African media leaders, was that of lack of suitable media content, inferior technology and the urgent need for media staff training. He appealed to China to assist in this regard. "The arrival of China in the international market of information is salutary on our continent. I personally welcome China's cooperation in media," said Vamoulke.
In this regard Jiang said China can work on intensifying research and training by assigning more African media personnel for training and setting up more media scholarships for study in China. "The media is the main channel for Chinese and Africans to understand each other," he said.
The Media Summit forms part of the Forum on China-African Cooperation (FOCAC) Summit in Johannesburg on December 4 and 5, at which the plenary session will be co-chaired by Chinese President Xi Jinping and South African President Jacob Zuma. Leaders from China and African countries will hold extensive discussions at FOCAC in a bid to intensify their solidarity and cooperation.
