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 Pakistan and China are today celebrating 55th anniversary of the
establishment of diplomatic ties between the two exemplary friendly neighbours. Of course this is an historic event and a matter of real
pride and honour for the governments as well as the people of both the
countries to have achieved such a milestone.
55 years back, when Pakistan and China were signing the papers to
establish formal diplomatic relations, the media, not only in these
countries, but also all over the world was, by no means, as fast and as
strong tool of information as it is today. With the passage of time,
media continued to flourish and attain more and more mature status in
both the countries. There is no doubt that Pakistani and Chinese media,
both had been playing some role in bringing the people of the two
nations closer, yet there was always an acute need of a better and
stronger interaction amongst the media personnel from both the
countries. Though Chinese publications like China Pictorial (Cheen Baa
Tassveer) did come as effective periodicals to bring knowledge about
people of China to the people of Pakistan but the need of enhanced media
endeavors for enhancing people to people contact continued to increase
with rapidly growing importance of media.
Today there are hundreds of newspapers and magazines in Pakistan and the
number is far higher in China. Similarly there has been a mushroom
growth of electronic media organizations in both the countries, owing to
the wonderful media policies adopted by Islamabad and Beijing.
Nevertheless, this media development enhanced the onus of the media in
both the countries to play more effective and larger role for the
promotion of bilateral ties and for the promotion and protection of the
Pak-China Friendship. Media personnel from both the countries have been
visiting Pakistan and China as part of official delegations, yet there
was no pure professional interaction amongst them at the organizational
level.
It was only a couple of years back when Mr. Makhdoom Babar, President
and Editor-in-Chief of The Daily Mail came up with a new vision for the
promotion of media relations between Pakistan and China. To materialize
his vision and ideas for serving the cause of Pak-China Friendship
through joint media endeavors, Mr. Makhdoom came up with different
strategies to form a professional collaboration between Chinese and
Pakistani journalists and media organizations. First step in this regard
was initiated when The Daily Mail signed a breakthrough accord of
professional collaboration with China's top ranking English Daily, China
Daily in 2005. This was just the first step in the direction of forging
a composite professional collaboration amongst Pakistani and Chinese
media. Soon after the signing of the agreement with China Daily, The
Daily Mail introduced a new segment in it's daily publications by
dedicating one full page to news about China everyday and the same is
still in practice with a goal of increasing it to two and ultimately to
four pages everyday.
Getting encouraged by the experiment of collaboration with China Daily,
President and Editor-in-Chief of The Daily Mail took another initiative
and formed Pakistan-China Media Friendship Association the same year.
Pak-China Media Friendship Association is a body, formed with the aim to
provide journalists of both countries with frequent opportunities to
have professional interactions and both formal and informal meetings and
other activities. Soon after it's inception, the Association gained an
immense response from the journalists of both the countries with a
rapidly increasing number of members. Today, the number of registered
members of Pak-China Media friendship Association from both the
countries is over 250.
As Chairman of Pak-China Media Friendship Association, President of The
Daily Mail held it's first function at Beijing in February 2006 with
Ambassador of Pakistan to China; His Excellency Mr.Salman Bashir as the
Chief Guest. This was the first ever function of it's kind as before
this, no media organization could organize such an event in either
country. During the ceremony, certificates of excellence were
distributed amongst the Chinese journalists and members of the
association in recognition of their respective professional achievements
and for their services to the cause of promotion of Pak-China Friendship
as well for maintaining of high standards of professionalism. A simple
yet impressive ceremony for the same purpose was also held at Shanghai
during the same period while a function for the same purpose is
scheduled to be held at Islamabad soon.
In the next phase, The Daily Mail signed an agreement of professional
collaboration with China's number one Chinese language newspaper
People's Daily. This agreement also covers the exchange of personnel
from both the organizations under a joint study programme for enhancing
the professional capabilities of the journalists from both the countries
and also with aim of providing them with ample opportunities for
learning more and more about socio-economic and geo-political as well
cultural scenarios of each other's country. Speaking at the occasion,
Mr.Makhdoom vowed to take Pak-China, time tested and all-weather
friendship to new horizons through improvised media endeavors. He also
stressed on the need for joint efforts by Pakistani and Chinese
journalists and media organizations for the promotion and protection of
Pak-China ties and for enhancing the people to people contacts amongst
the peoples of both the countries.
During his meeting with vice President of People's Daily, Mr.Makhdoom
offered to publish and circulate four pages of People's Daily's overseas
edition in Pakistan. The offer was warmly welcomed and accepted and soon
a small edition of People's Daily would be published and circulated
along with The Daily Mail throughout Pakistan.
A similar agreement was signed with China's leading and most trusted
English language weekly Beijing Review. The Daily Mail extended the same
offer of publishing and circulating Beijing Review along with The Daily
Mail on monthly basis, which was again welcomed and accepted. After the
signing of the agreement, Mr.Makhdoom was also invited to deliver a
lecture to the Editorial staff of Beijing Review over the topic of 'Role
of Media for peace and harmony and challenges of contemporary
scenarios'. President of The Daily Mail, during his lecture, threw light
on the importance of national interests and the difference between
national interests and professional interests and also elaborated the
interpretations of sensational journalism and substantial journalism.
A meeting was also held between President of The Daily Mail and
President of leading Chinese magazine China's Talents Professor Wang
Xiaopeng. Both discussed a host of issues of bilateral professional
interests and agreed on a number of joint ventures, including the
signing of agreements of professional collaboration and exchange of
personnel. Professor Wang and Mr.Makhdoom also agreed on joint selection
of talented people from both the countries and to honour them jointly
every year.
The President of The Daily Mail also held detailed discussions with the
officials of China Radio International (CRI) and reached a verbal MoU of
signing agreement of professional collaboration between the two
organizations.The Daily Mail and CRI (Urdu) also agreed on holding of
joint quiz programmes and other competitions for the promotion of
Pak-China Friendship.
The Daily Mail Chief also gave interview to various Chinese print and
electronic media organizations and stressed the need for forging immense
professional unity amongst Pakistani and Chinese media organizations and
individual professionals for the promotion of Pak-China Friendship and
for the mutual and bilateral interests of the two countries.
The Daily Mail's President and Chairman of Pak-China Media Friendship
Association Mr.Makhdoom Babar also held detailed parleys with officials
of All-China Journalists' Association, a body, having over 7,50,000
Chinese journalists as it's registered members. Officials of All-China
Journalists' Association welcomed the formation of Pak-China Media
Friendship Association. The Director General of All-China Journalists'
Association Mr.Zhu Yinghua informed Mr.Makhdoom that there had been a
lot of media exchanges between China and Pakistan from the platform of
All-China Journalists' Association but this exchange programme was in a
state of disruption for about past 20 years. He expressed the desire of
resuming the programme of exchange of media delegations between Pakistan
and China in collaboration with Pak-China Media Friendship Association.
Chairman of Pak-China Media Friendship Association straightaway welcomed
the idea and both parties agreed on the same. A formal agreement in this
regard is likely to be signed soon.
Today is the world of media and it is full of a variety of challenges.
However, through the media endeavors that The Daily Mail and Pak-China
Media Friendship Association have initiated, it can easily be said that
the journalists of both Pakistan and China are quite effectively
preparing and gearing up to meet all such challenges. Through such
efforts and initiatives, journalists from both the countries are getting
poised to do for the promotion of Pak-China Friendship and to meet the
prevailing global challenges that they or their predecessors could not
do in the past 55 years. It can be said that these endeavors are sort of
gifts to the people and particularly the journalists of both the
countries by The Daily Mail on the event of commemoration of 55 years of
Pakistan-China friendship; that is all-weather, time- tested and
stronger than mountains and deeper than oceans. |
