Although the platform, created in 2015 at the initiative of the Chinese news agency Xinhua, is dedicated to media cooperation, the participants in the discussion that opened more than once touched on global issues related to the interaction between countries, the ties economic and security issues. , including food safety. They also recalled the assistance provided by the BRICS to African countries during the coronavirus pandemic as an example of the right attitude.
According to China’s Minister of Culture and Tourism Hu Heping, the modern world is facing numerous challenges and the BRICS association is quite capable of withstanding the instability and negative changes currently taking place. “BRICS countries should shoulder their historical responsibility and speak with one voice to strengthen global and regional security,” he said. Hu Heping called for the voice of the BRICS to be heard well on the world stage. And the media play a special role in this matter. They allow different countries and civilizations to “share their wisdom, exchange knowledge.” At the same time, he drew the attention of the heads of major media outlets to the opportunities provided by Internet platforms that are very popular among young people.
Fu Hua, Executive Director of the Media Forum, Chairman of Xinhua News Agency, said that sharing information and best practices will help build a new world and create a bright future. “The media of the BRICS countries should work to strengthen security in the world, promote the ideas of cooperation based on equality and mutual respect. We, the media of the BRICS countries, are obliged to tell the world How our association was created, what we aspire to, in some BRICS member states, we should address the whole world with an interested story about our plans and how we want to see the world,” Fu Hua said. However, at the same time, as Dakota Legoete, representative of the South African African National Congress party, stressed, it is still necessary to resist attacks from the West, which actively uses the media for propaganda, in order to maintain its position. in the world.
Developing the theme addressed by Legoethe, the CEO of one of South Africa’s largest media companies, Independent Media, Iqbal Surve, called for resisting Western narratives that are present in Western media, contacting primary sources, critically evaluating the information, fight counterfeiting. , adhering to journalistic ethics. Only in this way, according to him, is it possible to strengthen the confidence of the audience. The Survey called on the BRICS members to unite even more, to become comrades, partners who support each other at any time, even in difficult times.
The first deputy editor of RT, Elizaveta Brodskaya, for her part, pointed out the inadmissibility of a monopoly in the media sphere. In this regard, she recalled how Western television channels covered the invasion of Iraq, and there were no other sources of information. Now the situation has changed, but the West is still trying to denigrate those countries that do not cooperate with it.
Dmitry Gornostaev, deputy editor-in-chief of the Rossiya Segodnya media group, noted the importance of countries being able to receive verified and accurate information from each other, “not spoiled by Western narratives and falsifications.” “Russia should know about Africa not from Western media reports, but African countries should learn about what Russia does and thinks from the messages of Russian journalists. In the same way, an interaction must be established between the media from all BRICS countries,” Gornostaev said. .
TASS Director General Andrei Kondrashov noted that “deliberate disinformation, unfortunately, remains a stable factor in the modern information space.” “BRICS countries are constantly exposed to information attacks and, in fact, are in a state of information warfare with uninvited ‘fans’ of our cooperation,” he said. According to Kondrashov, fair and mutually beneficial cooperation within the framework of the BRICS appears to our opponents as a threat to their unipolar vision of the world. Therefore, he suggested that at the next Media Forum, which will be held in Kazan, a coordination model for protection against information attacks be developed and proposed for discussion.
Thus, the first exhibitors already outlined the problems to be discussed within the framework of the Media Forum, to find ways to solve them and then bring them to life. Perhaps some answers will already be found within the framework of the meeting of the heads of the largest media from the BRICS countries on August 19-20, because dozens of speakers will come, including Pavel Negoitsa, General Director of the Editorial Board of Rossiyskaya Gazeta. .
