Media should play a role to counter misinformation about BRI, Speakers.

Islamabad 26 May 2021: Friends of BRI Forum- an initiative of  Institute of Peace and Diplomatic Studies organized a special webinar on “Strengthening Media Cooperation under Belt and Road Initiative”  in order to promote strong media linkages and professional development amongst the countries in parallel to the Belt and Road Initiative. The speakers of the webinar were in agreement that there is a strong need for media linkages on BRI countries to promote and counter the misinformation and promote understanding about BRI and its benefits to the groups and communities across the world. Ms. Ke Ye, media managing editor of In Zhejiang Media Group, moderated the webinar. Apart from introducing speakers Ms. Ke Ye highlighted the importance of promoting media linkages amongst BRI countries. Ms. Farhat Asif, President of Institute of Peace and Diplomatic Studies shared the insight about Friends of BRI Forum. She said that these are series of Webinars that IPDS will continue to host in future. She said Pakistan is a principal beneficiary of BRI as CPEC is an important corridor of BRI. Sarmad Ali, Managing Director at Jang Media Group and President of All Pakistan Newspaper Society said that there is a need to build strong media linkages and there is a need to have a “Media Corridor” on BRI. He has provided various ideas to strengthen the media cooperation on BRI.  Dr. Harvey Dzodin, Commentator on CCTV said that the youth can play a positive role by promoting human to human contact within the BRI countries. He said that China has always promoted the collaboration of its youth in the media and communication field.   Makhdoom Baber,  President of the Daily Mail and the Chairman of Pakistan-China Media Friendship Association drew the attention towards creating positive content and contribution in the media sector by the member states of the BRI, thus to better combat the pack of lies.   He deliberated further on the role of national media and asked the forum to have the young journalists exchange program within the BRI countries. Koval Oleksii, Editorial Board Member at “Ukraine-China” Magazine said that the development in BRI countries is occurring at many levels and in prospect of that, the development in the media sector within BRI countries will help in boosting the cultural understanding within the journalists of the BRI countries. Prof. Dr. Naim Salem from the International Affairs and Diplomacy Department of Notre Dame University, Lebanon discussed with the forum the interconnected role of international relations and media communications. In his view, media communication infrastructure can be facilitated by China in other countries of the BRI other than Pakistan as China-Pakistan’s media collaboration is already very strengthened.  Artyom Garin joined the webinar as a speaker from Russian Academy of Sciences and deliberated on  the role of Media in enhancing the communication and Human to Human contact within BRI countries. A large number of media persons, journalists, students and academicians participated in this webinar from all over the world.