|
BBC Global News Director Richard Sambrook has hailed the world media summit as a platform for sharing experience, strengthening cooperation and upholding social responsibilities.
In an interview with Xinhua, Sambrook said: "I thought it was an extremely valuable occasion. For all of us in the media around the world who are sharing the problems of the transition into a digital service, we could compare our experiences, share the things we've learned, and learn a great deal from each other. That was very valuable."
He said the industry was in the very early stages of the transition and there were no quick or easy answers. But most of the people attending the summit seemed to agree that "we need to find a way to put value back onto news and information and content."
The summit was also a platform for cooperation among the world media, Sambrook said.
"We have talked with Xinhua about whether we can collaborate more generally, particularly on big events like the upcoming U.N. Children's Day and other big events of that kind," he said.
Sambrook said he was very hopeful that kind of discussion could lead to great collaboration and co-operation between Xinhua and the BBC. And broadly around the media summit, there was a view that, particularly in this difficult time, the world media needed to support each other and collaborate more.
But more than that, he said, the summit provided an opportunity for all to learn about how swiftly China was changing.
On the media's social responsibility, Sambrook said: "I think it was a reminder. Again, there was a consensus from most of the people in the summit that the media need to be true to those fundamental values of fairness, accuracy and impartiality, and also to remember the importance of openness, and the importance of free reporting."
And as the world became a smaller place, more interconnected, more interdependent, it was more and more important that the media was the glue.
"We heard that from many speakers, including Chinese President Hu Jintao, who called on the media to uphold the social responsibility," Sambrook said.
"I think that really again reminds us of the importance of these values if we want to be trusted in the society."
Sambrook also congratulated Xinhua on hosting a very successful event of that kind. He said: "I think it was an extremely well organized summit. I go to quite a lot of conferences around the world, particularly media conferences. But this one I thought was extremely well organized, down to every detail, and I congratulated the president of Xinhua on the work that he and his organization had put into it."
Sambrook said this was the first summit of this kind and it was an open invitation in the end to see who was going to pick up the batten in order to try and run the second one in probably two years.
"We very much hope that somebody will, and it was a value occasion and I'm quite sure that we will be meeting again in some other part of the world in a couple of years," he said.
|
