BEIJING, China - A new strategic media partnership between Africa and China was the centrepiece of discussions at the 6th Forum on China – Africa Cooperation (Focac) seminar held here recently.

Chinese and African information officers and journalists attended the seminar. It unpacked the prevailing media environment and flow of information globally.

About 24 African countries were represented at the seminar that preceded the Focac ministerial meeting slated for later this year.

The seminar identified western domination of international media and information flow as a matter of grave concern. It resolved to increase the Sino-Afro voice at the level of international media through a new strategic media partnership.

The seminar agreed on the need for China and African media houses to report on each other and to organize joint reporting tours as well as news and personnel exchange.

“We are not propagating a media war against the west but how to increase our voice by telling our own stories,” said a senior Chinese government official.

To do that, African and Chinese media have to chart an own agenda whose central focus is national development.

“China and our African friends must look at our own advantages and exploit them by starting with the simple and easiest things and then we can aim high,” the Chinese official said at the conclusion of the seminar.

An editorial board member of the international department of the Xinhua News Agency Zhang Dacheng, said China and Africa have worked out a strategic relationship by way of agricultural, health trade and other programmes and that it is up to the media to strengthen this relationship.

“We have to unpack these programmes for the benefit of the people and objectivity should form the cornerstone of reports by the media from the two continents,” Zhang said.

He said the media in China and Africa should work carefully to shape public opinion on what is happening in their respective countries and the world.

Another Chinese journalist Fu Jing from the Peoples daily newspaper told the seminar that against the backdrop of the current world economic crisis, there has been increased media activity around the world where the western media dominates all facets of news.

He said that over 40 percent of news that is circulating is sourced from the west while 85 to 90 percent of news service comes from the United States of America.

This skewed media situation calls for a new media world order as the current situation benefits only one side and thus promotes western media hegemony, said Zhang.

This system allows the west to blanket the world with its social values at the expense of other countries and their peoples.

“In reporting, the media reaches out to countries beyond their territories and influence them. The focus is always on controversy. In Africa and other developing countries, the focus is on disasters and problems. In most cases, the reports are biased, negative and misleading. There is nothing that is just or fair in their reporting, look at Tibet and the riots in China,” he said.

He suggested that it is imperative that Africa and China increase their say in international opinion. While there may be no change in the short term, both Africa and China have to work towards breaking the monopoly of the west on the world information service by increasing their capacity to generate news.

“ We have to use our own voice to report our issues, we have to make independent judgement and not be guided by others. We must see beyond the face of independent western reporting and intensify exchange of information by increasing communication between our media,” Zhang said to applause.

Botswana’s Jeff Ramsay told the seminar participants that journalists and other media practitioners have to work towards breaking down the walls of information barriers.

“Others are still defining us. We have the technical tools to break down these walls but must find the skills to do so.”

Zambia’s Morden Mumanga Mayembe said the agenda of developing countries in Africa and China is one of food and the provision of basic services, whereas western countries are preoccupied with democracy and human rights. Hence the media in Africa and China need a strategy that encompasses awareness creation, positive thinking and common understanding.

“The problem in Africa is partly because of media ownership. African media is owned by foreigners who are not beholden to the local agenda,” were the concluding remarks by South Africa’s William Malusi Mogale.

The seminar ended on a positive note with promises of further cooperation between China and African media.

It was further suggested that resolutions of the seminar be passed on to the Focac ministers meeting.

by Rajah Munamava,Editor of NEW ERA