Become agents of social change, broadcasters urged

Television and radio broadcasters can help put a ‘human face’ to international commitments to reduce poverty and human suffering worldwide, a senior UN official said.

“You have a role in shaping public policy and the human development agenda. You could alter the course of history,” United Nations Under-Secretary-General Kim Hak-Su told the delegates of Asia Media Summit 2006, which opened in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on 29 May 2006.

The Summit was opened by the Prime Minister of Malaysia, Dato' Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi. It received a message from UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, which was read out by Kim Hak-Su.

In his own speech, Mr Kim told the assembled media managers and owners: “As change agents, you serve the public interest by reporting on issues that affect ordinary people and marginalized groups…Your stories could remind policy makers of their commitment to fighting the daily onslaught of silent tragedies.”

These remarks were made during an opening day plenary session on ‘Local Content for Global Audience: An uphill battle? – Advocacy of the Millennium Development Goals: Role of Broadcasters’.

Click here for thematic context for panel

The session received inputs from TVE Asia Pacific and United Nations ESCAP, the UN Secretariat’s Asia Pacific regional arm. Both organizations were also co-sponsors of the Summit, organised by the Asia Pacific Institute for Broadcasting Development (AIBD).

The session sought to position development stories within the broadcast media’s quest for local stories for local and global audiences. It was part of a larger, regional advocacy project to promote the Millennium Development Goals – an international blueprint for human development, with eight goals to be achieved by 2015.

These goals are the means of implementing the Millennium Declaration --- to which 189 governments committed at the UN Millennium Summit held in 2000.

The region’s remarkable MDG gains in poverty reduction, underpinned by spectacular economic growth, are dented by grim statistics on other fronts, he said.  Areas of deep concern include child and maternal health, water and sanitation.

There is a demand for development stories that are well told, he suggested. He referred to a BBC Online survey in 2005, where three out of four respondents had shown interest in learning more about poverty in developing countries.

“This is indicative of a global market for development stories. It also means that your stories on the human drama of MDG issues, wherever they unfold, could attract not only domestic attention but also global interest,” Mr Kim added.

Other members of panel, drawn from the broadcast industry, acknowledged their role in promoting the global development targets.

Mano Wickramanayake, Group Director of MTV Channel and MBC Networks, Sri Lanka, said: “In terms of MDGs…broadcasters have a significant role to play. The obvious role is dissemination of information in their home markets which have a direct beneficial impact on the people.”

The nexus between MDGs and broadcasters was a recurrent theme during the Summit. Speaking during the concluding session, Chandra Muzaffar, President, International Movement for a Just World, and a leading social activist in Asia, lamented the broadcaster’s lack of interest in MDG related issues. “I don’t know of a single southern broadcaster that has provided sustained coverage of human development needs and issues captured by the MDGs,” he remarked.

The Asia Media Summit, held in the Malaysian capital every year in May, is the largest annual gathering of media managers and senior broadcast professionals in the Asia Pacific region – home to the largest television audience on the planet.

This year’s Summit was attended by nearly 350 decision-makers, media professionals, scholars from 70 countries in the Asia Pacific, Africa, Europe, Middle East and North America. Among the other Summit co-sponsors are UNESCO, UNDP-APDIP, ITU, Global Knowledge Partnership (GKP) and China Central Television (CCTV).