It is time for us to challenge Western domination in reporting regional events with objective, fair and comprehensive coverage"Jakarta (ANTARA News) - The Indonesian National News Agency "Antara" has urged the ASEAN and Russian media to play more active role in effort to overcome a gap within the world information flow.
Antara`s Editor in Chief, Akhmad Kusaeni made the statement in his speech entitled "The Role of ASEAN, Russian Media in Bridging the Information Gap" at the "ASEAN-Russian Media Summit" which took place in Moscow on Tuesday.
"Until now, there is a gap within the world information flow. And that is why the world is not flat. So, it is time for us to challenge Western domination in reporting regional events with objective, fair and comprehensive coverage," Kusaeni said.
According to him around 80 percent of the international news stories everyday come from Western news agencies.
"It is not right that Western media control the agenda of the media in a continent with two-thirds of the world`s population, or 3.7 billion people," he noted.
He also said that the world is not flat, because it is a fact that the world is in a reality a slop on which information flows downward from developed countries to developing countries and regions.
"ASEAN and Russia are our home. We know exactly what happen in our backyard. We know better than parachute journalists from Western media who come to our countries for a week or a month, and then they claimed to be experts on ASEAN or Russian issues," he disclosed.
According to Kusaeni developed countries, which have one seventh of the world population, have dominated two thirds of the total information flow.
"We must fight the information gap. Developing countries, including those in Asia, have called for establishing a new order of spreading information since the 1960s when they were fighting against an unfair information control by the Western developed countries. And yet, the imbalances and differences of information flow between the developing and developed countries have not been narrowed by disputes for decades," he stressed.
In addition the ASEAN media must report on ASEAN themselves, he said, adding that the image of ASEAN an Russia depends on how the world media describe it.
"How the ASEAN and Russian media deliver and strengthen ASEAN and Russian voice on international arena? The answer is we should seek active participation in world events and cooperate more on the coverage of regional news." he said.
By exchanging news, joining hands in editing and sharing beats of report, ASEAN and Russian media would have broken the monopoly in reporting prominent regional events.
The media in ASEAN and Russia can work together in various ways. First, the media circle in ASEAN and Russia should step up high-level dialogues at different levels and between various media agencies, such as print media, radio and television stations, and also journalists associations.
Second, the media circle in ASEAN and Russia should intensify exchanges and cooperation in all fields, such as news exchange and personnel.
The ASEAN-Russian Media Summit was also participated in by The Nation Bangkok Daily`s Chief Editor, Kavi Chongkittavorn, Russian Beuyond the Headlines` Chief Editor Eugene Abov, Deputy Chief Editor of Ria Novosti, Evgeny Levchenko, Indonesian Ambassador to Russia, Djauhari Oratmangun, and the Indonesian International Relations Expert Dewi Fortuna Anwar.
ASEAN groups Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
Reporter: Azizah Fitriyanti
Editor: Unggul Tri Ratomo
Copyright © ANTARA 2013
