MANADO, NORTH SULAWESI, May 29 – United Nations (UN) secretary-general, Ban Ki-moon has praised the efforts by the Asia-Pacific Institute for Broadcasting Development (AIBD) in organising the Asia Media Summit (AMS) which is entering its 10th year.
Ban also welcomed the noble efforts by the AIBD to cooperate with the UN in several initiatives including journalism training and in announcing UN programmes on important issues worldwide.
He said that for the past 10 years the summit had become a valuable forum for broadcasters, regulatory agencies, researchers and other stakeholders in the Asia-Pacific region in exchanging ideas and best practices in the broadcasting industry.
Ban also called on the summit participants to contribute towards reducing the digital gap so that every strata of society regardless of their income, language and cultural background could have access to information.
The UN secretary-general said this in the programme book in conjunction with the 10th AMS held here for two days beginning today.
Meanwhile, AMS participants were told to prepare themselves to face the digital era to boost competitiveness in the broadcasting industry.
AIBD director Yang Binyuan said the media should be creative and should contribute toward the development of the society and country through information by exploiting the sophisticated technology.
He said that since the summit was first held 10 years ago, it had helped to assist regional media practitioners and organisations to prepare for the future of the broadcasting industry.
“It was also in line with the theme stipulated for the 10th anniversary of the summit, which was ‘Delivering on Broadcasting’s Future’,” he said at the pre-summit forum entitled Challenges for Radio in the Digital Era today.
The 10th AMS assembled more than 300 media practitioners from more than 100 organisations from over 50 countries in the Asia-Pacific region to discuss the direction of the broadcasting industry in facing the digital era and the new media explosion.
– BERNAMA
