Media has key role in RCEP
Forum urges news channels to act as catalysts that promote ties, positive changes in region
As the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership takes regionwide and global collaboration to a new level, media will play an important role in bringing countries and people together, media experts say.
“It is important to demonstrate the position of RCEP members for openness and inclusiveness and cooperation for win-win outcomes,” said Ban Wei, deputy director of the Editor’s Office of Xinhua News Agency.
“In this way we can promote regional integration and make Asia’s contribution to the world’s economic recovery,” Ban said at the New Opportunity for Media Cooperation in RCEP Asia Region seminar during the RCEP Media and Think Tank Forum held in Hainan province on May 23.
The event brought together government officials, diplomats, media representatives and academics from across the region to discuss how the world’s largest free-trade deal will propel regional collaboration in Asia.
The RCEP was signed in November by the 10-nation Association of Southeast Asian Nations and China, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand.
Pana Janviroj, executive director of Asia News Network, said he hopes the coalition of 24 news organizations across Asia can play a bigger role in promoting media collaboration as business stories are a vital part of panAsia media cooperation.
“We would be happy to closely work with (the) RCEP secretariat ... and be able to produce forward-looking content, (what our) readers in the region (are) looking for.”
Juliet Labog-Javellana, associate publisher of the Philippine Daily Inquirer, said media can provide reports, information and commentary on how the RCEP could drive
Asia’s pandemic recovery.
“The media can highlight its bigger potential compared with other existing free-trade agreements as well as provide a keen understanding of China’s role in realizing RCEP’s success,” she said.
Wong Chun Wai, adviser and former editor-in-chief of the Star Media Group in Malaysia, said reporting the RCEP is more than cold economic statistics.
“The RCEP is about bringing direct and indirect benefits to people,” Wong said, adding that the media should provide stories “in simple and interesting narrative form” to tell how the huge trade agreement brings positive changes to people’s lives. He also proposed a parallel or annual meeting of RCEP media organizations for exchanging ideas.
Liu Xiaolong, a member of the editorial board of China Media Group, said that with the implementation of the pact Asia will play an increasingly important role in global economic development.
“This requires media in Asia to deepen their cooperation to gradually improve their status in the international discourse system and expand their global influence,” Liu said.
Junice Yeo, executive director of Eco-Business, said: “As the region claws its way out of the COVID-19 crisis, one of the most significant trends we are already witnessing is the pace at which sustainable development is progressing.”
Seeing the resilience of the global supply chain as one of the most significant long-term threats from the pandemic, Yeo said she expects the RCEP to play a critical role within the context of sustainable development because it is a big step toward multilateralism. “To understand one another’s challenges, to encourage complementary approaches toward multilateralism, will allow for greater coherence and more efficient implementation,” she said.
Arianto Surojo, director of information and public relations for the ASEAN-China Centre, said media organizations must design a communication strategy for RCEP stories.
“Media can write more readable articles for the public and become the supplement to official government diplomacy,” Surojo said, noting public communication will be key to deliver government policy after the signing of the RCEP.
Muhammad Irfan Ilmie, chief of Indonesia’s Antara News Agency’s Beijing bureau, said that without media support, the people will not understand the benefits of the RCEP. “(The pact) is not only a new challenge, but also the big opportunity for the media in Indonesia to bounce back after being affected by the pandemic.”