Media Growth: China reiterates commitment to deepen cooperation with Africa

China's National Radio and Television Administration (NRTA) has reiterated its commitment to deepen cooperation with African media to boost growth of China-Africa relations.

Dr Yan Chengsheng, Director-General, International Cooperation Department of NART, said this during the interactive session with Journalists in Beijing under the auspices of China Africa Press Centre (CAPC) Programme 2022.

He spoke on the development of the media industry of China and its international exchanges and cooperation, saying the administration would exchange media programmes on philosophy that suits China-Africa.

Yan said, “To improve the level of cooperation between China and Africa; actually we have been thinking about that all the time, we should continue to focus on programme exchange.

“This is a good way to learn about each other and meet people’s needs on various cultural products.

“China promoted screening of Chinese TV-dramas and documentaries in the past decade; I think it is a way to help our African friends learn about the real situation in China and deepen China-Africa relations.

“During the China-Africa media cooperation programme in August, we screened Chinese platforms of over 30 programmes from 20 African countries.”

He said that measures were taken to get feedback on results of African media contents in August, also that some user platforms reflected that it was nice to have watched African contents in China.

According to him, media programme exchanges will promote knowledge sharing between China and Africa.

“China’s philosophy of media operations is quite different from Western media. I have studied in the United States and Japan and can say Western journalism focuses on critical thinking.

“It is definitely not wrong that they will have negative opinions about something that they view about society, in China we emphasize social responsibility practice of the media.

“The media can play a more constructive role in reporting events and the phenomenon, because lots of criticism does not solve problems.

“We hope the media improves the situation, solves problems and plays an active role in meaningful development; we see achievements about Africa’s development and are happy to report them.

“At the same time, there were of course some problems in Africa we report but focus on educating people, which is much better than criticising the problems,” he added.

He reiterated the need for dialogue among journalists on media programme exchanges to be encouraged in ways that suit development of China and Africa.

The director-general further said that China established its journalism philosophy in ways that suit the traditional situation of the country, adding that such formed the basis of the culture of China.

On willingness by China to provide technological support for media growth in Africa, he said that such could be related to the economic situation and social development of the country.

“China had a low level of development of media, but after several years of efforts we can say in some areas like 5G application China is leading in some technological areas.

“What we can do for Africa is first with content; we can provide Chinese programmes for you to broadcast and you also provide your programmes to China.

This is “to support each other in our development of media outlets globally; between China and African countries there have been aiding projects between the governments.

“We can try business and commercial promotions in the media sector; we should attach importance to both governmental levels.

“The Chinese government will provide assistance to African countries; the market is important for us in China with various enterprises and institutions having capabilities in broadcasting services; you can rely on,” he added.

He, however, said that a lot could be learnt about the history and situation from China’s regional development through such exchanges.

NRTA, a ministerial-level central government agency directly under the State Council of China, is responsible for administration and supervision of radio, television and online audio-visual programme service in China and promotion of industrial development.

No fewer than 90 Journalists from 67 countries across Africa, Middle East, Europe, Latin America, and Asia Pacific, are participating in the programme which began in June.

The programme, which is being hosted by the China Public Diplomacy Association (CPDA), is expected to end in November.

(Source: Realnewsmagazine.net)