Manado, N Sulawesi (ANTARA News) - The North Sulawesi provincial capital of Manado will host the 10th Asia Media Summit (ASM) on May 29-30 next year, a Communications and Information Ministry official said.

The summit will be organized by the Asia Pacific Institute for Broadcasting Development (APIBD) which serves as collaboration of member states, partners and international organizations, the ministry`s director general of information and public communication, Freddy H. Tulung said here on Wednesday.

APIBD has 46 member states and around 100 broadcasters, he said.

Freddy said the summit will discuss a wide range of issues related to broadcast, content, ethics, technology and other strategic issues at local level.

The topics of the summit will be divided into media and diversity, role of media in building national self-reliance, literacy media and media ethics, he said.

"The founding fathers adopted diversity as unifying force of the nation. The rising number of conflicts (in recent months) is the result of poor social cohesion. Is it still relevant?" he asked.

About the development of national self-reliance, Freddy questioned the role of media. "In the context of North Sulawesi, does tolerance merely become the domain of families and schools?" he said.

He said as media is no longer censored and shut down, publication companies must conduct self-censorship.
(S012)

Editor: Ella Syafputri
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