Call for Brics news platform

Brics countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) need to create a common news platform to focus on the bloc’s agenda and the national agendas of the five countries, Sputnik deputy editor-in-chief Dimitri Gornostaev said at the Brics Media Forum in Cape Town yesterday.

“Brics countries lack a common positive agenda and this platform could create the basis for having this common agenda, this multiracial agenda, which will include positive and negative news,” he said.

”We can’t deny the negative is a part of our lives and it makes us think about how to make the world positive.”

Sputnik is a news agency, website platform and radio service established by the Russian government-owned news agency, Rossiya Segodnya.

Communications Minister Nomvula Mokonyane said the SA government remained committed to media freedom, but it was concerned about the skewed patterns of media ownership in the country.

She told delegates from Brics media houses that press freedom was protected by the constitution and “we’ll continue to nurture and protect it”.

However, government was concerned that the ownership of media and the entire value chain, including publishing and advertising, was still largely in white hands. “This cannot be acceptable 24 years into democracy.”

Mokonyane said journalists were vital to promote development in the bloc and beyond.

“As the Brics bloc, we should also strive to do better in coordinating our efforts to deal with the challenges facing the world.

“The media could be the best platform to rebuild a just world order.” – ANA