Call for China to view Caribbean as equal partners

KEN CHEE HING

IN BUENOS AIRES, ARGENTINA

A CALL has been made for China to view the Caribbean region as an equal partner when it comes to interaction with media outlets from that region.

The call came on Monday during the China Latin America and Caribbean Media Forum in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

It came from Keith Eccleston Campbell, CEO of the Public Broadcasting Corporation of Jamaica.

He was the only media representative from the Caribbean to speak at the forum where over 20 heads of media outlets contributed.

In giving a Caribbean perspective, Campbell said the cost to change over from traditional media to cyberspace journalism was prohibitive to many media houses especially in countries with vulnerable economies.

He said it was China and its President Xi Jinping who held that there can be no development in society without a reliable source of information exchange...without a vibrant media.

He called for collaboration in content creation and help to media houses to make the change to digital.

''We would like to see these as the focus of areas of interest between China, the Caribbean and Latin America.

''More data is needed to create articles that will foster growth and development.''

Campbell called for China to be more cognizant of the Caribbean when next it plans such a forum as, ''we are equal partners and as such we would like to challenge if there is going to be another forum that you consider an island somewhere in the Caribbean (to co-host).''

He later praised the forum and thanked Xinhua News for organising it saying that an enormou amount of valuable information was acquired.

At the end of the forum, a joint statement was read out which underlined the fact that information sharing was the bridge to bring

the people of China closer to the Caribbean and Latin America, and vice versa.

Xinhua News president Cai Mingzhao declared the forum a success and said he looked forward to the next one which is to be held in Shanghai, China.

The first such forum was in 2016 in Chile.