Zhang Yu

JeniZhang13@163.com

OVER 450 attendees from 101 countries and regions — representatives from nearly 200 mainstream media outlets, think tanks, and government agencies, as well as international organizations — are participating in the fifth World Media Summit in the hope of reaching practical cooperation.

The World Media Summit, a global congregation of media leaders, unfurls its fifth edition with the theme of “Boosting Global Confidence, Promoting Media Development” from Saturday to Friday in Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, and Kunming, Yunnan Province.

At the opening ceremony and plenary session, which was held at Nansha Bay Marina Convention Center in Guangzhou yesterday, the Joint Statement of the 5th World Media Summit was released.

During the summit, the attending guests will delve into topics of common concern, such as human development and security, opportunities and challenges brought by new technologies, and media prospects in the new era.

Hu Heping, executive deputy head of the Publicity Department of the CPC Central Committee, said in a speech at the opening ceremony that the summit is a grand event for global media professionals and the world media community.

Hu hopes that media from around the world adhere to fairness and justice, uphold their responsibilities, strengthen cultural exchanges, promote mutual learning among civilizations, deepen practical cooperation, and strive for mutual benefit and win-win results, contributing wisdom and strength to community building with a shared future for mankind.

Fu Hua, executive chairman of the World Media Summit and president of Xinhua News Agency, stated in his keynote speech that media from all countries should join hands, seize opportunities, respond to challenges, and play a positive role in promoting world peace and development.

Guangdong Governor Wang Weizhong said in a speech that the World Media Summit is an important platform for understanding China. Media outlets are sincerely welcomed to visit Guangdong and the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area to witness and tell stories of China’s development.

“It’s a very good time, great opportunity for media organizations to meet together. We as journalists have a lot of responsibilities as to how we give information in our media. We need to work together more than ever,” Jose Luis Barcelo Mezquita, president of Spain’s El Mundo Financiero, told Shenzhen Daily.

Alex Galea, deputy general manager of Malta’s Allied Newspapers, echoed Mezquita’s view. Galea emphasized the importance of meeting up to exchange thoughts and ideas, and making use of certain technologies like artificial intelligence, which would help automate certain tasks and help media focus more on other value-added activities.

Gianmarco Volpe, global desk chief at Italy’s Agenzia Nova, believes that risk appears when there is a lack of dialogue among global media outlets. “The media industry is very important to create bridges between people.”

Daniel Donovan, editor-in-chief of Canada’s Ottawa Life Magazine, said conferences like this are significant to talk about these differences and more importantly, to also talk about similarities and values, and how media outlets approach news and tell the truth.