Head of Belarus’ Union of Journalists informed on co-operation with Chinese media and prospects for experience exchange
In August 2023, a centre of All-China Journalists’ Association and a Gansu Province media centre opened at the Belarusian Union of Journalists in Minsk. Andrei Krivosheyev, the Chairman of the Board of the Belarusian Union of Journalists (BUJ), has summed up the first results of their work, stressing that the agreement between the Belarusian capital and the Chinese province became the first one in a series of major regional agreements between media holdings after the signing of a strategic agreement between the BUJ and the All-China Journalists’ Association.
“A five-year agreement is being signed right now. We have agreed that our media relations and information exchange will strengthen, covering all the spheres and niches that now exist between the regions of Belarus and the provinces of China. There are already dozens of such agreements, including dozens of successful projects on the territory of Belarus. In particular, the Gansu Province has a large advanced enterprise in the Minsk Region, and a Gansu centre is being built in Minsk,” Mr. Krivosheyev noted.
The official informed that, over the two months of work of the centre of All-China Journalists’ Association and the media centre of the Gansu Province at the Belarusian Union of Journalists, there has been established an intense exchange of information, video and photo materials, as well as comments. “Our Chinese colleagues made many photos and videos during their visit to Minsk. In addition, we provided them with the materials of the Minsk-Novosti Agency – primarily those dealing with the economy, new technologies, tourism, humanitarian and cultural co-operation – as part of our partnership. From time to time, these materials are posted on Gansu's New Media resources, social networks, and communicators that are very popular and widespread in China. After that visit, the publications about Belarus have already been viewed by about 30m people – which is a good result, I consider,” Mr. Krovosheyev said.
There are also new vectors of bilateral media development. A Belarusian media centre began its work in China, and Belarusian reporters have been invited to pay a reciprocal visit to China.
“As far as I know, the mass media of the Grodno, Brest, Mogilev and Vitebsk regions have their own projects with Chinese colleagues, and we wish them to reach a qualitatively new level. It is quite possible that similar media centres will be launched in the regions of Belarus to facilitate the access of our Chinese friends and allies to reliable, complete, objective and interesting multimedia information about Belarus. In turn, we could get the same information about China,” the Chairman of the Board of the Belarusian Union of Journalists noted.
Moreover, co-operation in the field of journalism is an excellent platform for gaining experience, and Mr. Krivosheyev believes Belarusians can learn from Chinese technological approaches. “They have made great progress towards the development of multimedia platforms, since such platforms unite all spheres of life in their country. For example, the sixth generation of a comprehensive platform was recently presented in Gansu. It combines the documents of an ordinary Chinese citizen, his activities, purchases through the Internet, travel documents of any kind, utility bills, including media. In short, a single platform keeps all information that makes it possible to unite hundreds of services. It is too early to talk about such a high level of digitalisation penetration into Belarusian society, but our Chinese colleagues are willing to share this experience. I think Belarus will also get to this point – taking into account the development of digital technologies and document management, as well as the electronic Government,” he stressed.
