Global media duty-bound for a better world

The world today is wrestling with a torrent of global challenges like the once-in-a-century pandemic, the rising risk of global stagflation, resurgent protectionism and hegemonism, as well as a warming planet.

Those pressing planetary challenges demand strong, effective and collective efforts from all walks of life in every country around the world. Media, of course, has a unique and important role to play.

For press groups worldwide to play their part in helping build a better world for all, better coordination and communication are essential in every sense. The fourth World Media Summit (WMS) held Monday has provided a high-end communication and coordination platform for global media to help tackle the major questions of the times and expand consensus around the world.

As Chinese President Xi Jinping said in a congratulatory letter to the summit, global media should endeavor to help foster friendship between peoples and facilitate cultural and people-to-people exchanges, making due contributions to championing the shared values of humanity and promoting the development of a community with a shared future for humanity.

As a bridge linking people's hearts and minds, media from around the world should play their due role in enhancing mutual understanding, promoting people-to-people exchanges and building bridges of mutual learning among civilizations, especially at a time of growing divisions and misunderstanding.

Authentic, objective and comprehensive reporting can foster understanding and unity among different countries and peoples. Biased journalism and even fake news, such as disinformation campaigns in the pandemic and the spread of terrorism propaganda online, can only inflate distrust and hostility, and function as tumors that will erode the humanity from inside.

Thus every member of the global media industry, particularly social media venues, must honor journalism ethics, and join hands to beat disinformation, hatred rhetoric and extremist ideas, to create a positive, healthy and constructive public opinion environment.

At the same time, media groups around the world should also better help developing countries make their voices heard on the world stage.

Over the past several centuries, global information has largely flown from the rich countries to poor ones. This should be changed to better reflect the evolving global political and economic landscape.

Such a cause has become increasingly urgent when developing world as well as the least developed economies are struggling to not only heal their people in the pandemic, but also feed them.

The author is a Xinhua writer.