China Media Group (CMG) and its European media partners on Thursday called for a joint effort of fulfill the media's responsibilities as public information disseminators and helping the international community build a strong force in the fight against the pandemic.

The joint statement was made during the 2020 European Media Partners Cooperation Online Forum hosted by CMG with the theme of “Mutual Trust Dialogue for Win-Win Cooperation.”      

“First, we should deepen cooperation in reporting COVID-19 responses; Second, we should promote the exchange of personnel between the media organizations; Third, we should strengthen the construction of our cooperation mechanism,” he said.  

In his speech, Shen pointed out, China and Europe share a broad consensus and common interests in supporting and practicing multilateralism, strengthening the global response to COVID-19, and jointly promoting global economic recovery and addressing the issue of climate change. We share far more consensus than divergences. Chinese and European media partners will also move towards a new stage of closer, deeper, and more pragmatic dialogue, exchange and cooperation.            

“We must recognize the power of partnerships in this new media ecosystem,” said President of Reuters Michael Friedenberg. “This can take the form of collaborative journalism, industry coalitions, new commercial business opportunities, content-sharing or shared platforms.”           

He also mentioned CMG and CCTV+ are important partners and the partnership continues to be a priority.           

“Without a clear two-way information communication, there will never be full trust and in-depth cooperation. Therefore, in a friendly relation between different countries and peoples, the media plays a vital role,” said Paolo Panerai, the editor-in-chief and CEO of Class Editori S.p.A.         

“As global interdependence grows, I believe that media companies cannot work in silos anymore,”        Michael Peters, CEO and president of executive board of Euronews emphasized. He believes that Euronews and CMG will continue to deepen their collaboration in fostering a better understanding between the two cultures.

A launch ceremony of China Business Video (CBV), a new joint program, was also held between CCTV+ and Reuters during the forum. It provides Reuters’ customers with financial news content from China, which will be distributed straight by CMG to improve media cooperation between China and other media and to strengthen information exchanges.       

At the forum, Teng Yunping, president of CCTV Video News Agency (CCTV+), and Adrian Wells, managing director of European News Exchange (ENEX) signed a Strategic Memorandum of Understanding, which signals the official launch of the European Media Partners (EMP). In the future, the two sides will strengthen cooperation on news materials, news reports, overseas reporters, news products, and media forums.        

At the same time, the program, BizToday, was released to provide EMP with tailored Chinese and European financial news jointly created by CMG, CCTV+ and the European News Exchange.       

At the forum, 28 delegates from 25 organizations in 16 European countries and delegates from CMG had in-depth discussions on how to strengthen coordination, deepen ties, unite to fight the pandemic, and bring greater confidence to the world through in-depth exchanges.         

Aleksandra Subotic, CEO of United Media N1 put it:” This is insecure times, it is crucial for media outlets to have as many reliable sources to report on the pandemic which affects us all. We use many reports as possible from abroad on the statistics and trends in different countries which show us the crisis management and government approaches to protecting the health of the population all over the world. We learnt a lot from Chinese documentaries about how they are fighting this contagious disease. We are facing an extreme challenge in protecting our newsrooms and providing smooth production continuity during the pandemic. And their additional news source and content exchange is a huge contribution at this time.”

During the forum, representatives from China and Europe joined an online panel discussion with the theme “Multilateral Cooperation and Mutual Trust, Common Challenges and Win-Win Future” to discuss how the Chinese and European media promote mutual trust between people from both sides and carry out multilateral cooperation to achieve win-win results.