India and China need to bring down man-made barriers to clear misconceptions about each other and media could play an important role in creating awareness and ironing out differences while enhancing people-to-people ties between the Asian neighbors, senior journalists from both countries stressed at the India-China High-Level Media Forum in New Delhi on Friday.

Participating in the first session of the forum, CGTN Deputy Director Yang Fuqing drew an interesting anecdote from history. "Over 2,000 years ago, the Chinese and Indian people made first contact after traversing through the world's most hostile and difficult terrain," he said.

"The natural barriers are no longer a problem, thanks to technological advances. But man-made barriers such as misconceptions, misunderstanding and mistrust still prevail between the two nations," he remarked.

Yang stressed that the media in both countries can take lessons from their shared history in creating a conducive environment for people-to-people ties.

"Throughout the last two millennia, we have learnt a great deal from each other. Even in modern times, we helped each other during our struggles for independence, we were 'allies' in the Non-Aligned Movement, we supported each other in many of the just causes at the United Nations and in the world at large," he elaborated.

Differences offer opportunities

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"Unfortunately, there were interruptions in this process of learning and in modern times, we are more focused on learning from the West. I think now it's the time for us to learn from each other again," he argued, stating that "to inform" and "to connect" are the core missions for media.

Deliberating on the kind of narrative media in both the countries must focus on, Yang felt that both commonalities and differences between the nations offer an opportunity for the media.

"Both China and India are two of the largest developing countries and share a lot of things in common such as feeding a large population and confronting a lot of development issues. So these commonalities form the foundations for exchanges and learning from each other," he said.

"And yet we are different in many ways. Being different is exactly the reason and rationale for us to learn from each other. Because we are different, there's always something different we can offer to each other. This should be one of the messages we should send to our peoples.

"I urge my Chinese and Indian colleagues to use the determination and courage displayed by our early ancestors to tear down barriers, be they natural or man-made, and join hands to work for the common prosperities of our two countries. Let's make China and India great again." 

'Good, frank conversation'

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Dipanjan Roy Chaudhary, senior assistant editor at Economic Times, told CGTN Digital that he was impressed by the "good, frank, conversation" with the Chinese journalists at the forum.

He said that contentious issues where China and India have stated differences such as positions on Tibet, Pakistan and Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) also figured in the discussions.

Roy Chaudhary felt that journalists from both countries must travel to other cities and provinces and not just remain confined to Beijing and New Delhi. "Indian and Chinese journalists mostly travel with their high dignitaries to each other's countries. This doesn't provide a comprehensive picture and leads to an information gap," he said.

"More travel by journalists is a better way to bridge this gap and get the geopolitics right."  

Supriya Sahu, director general of India's state-run Doordarshan television network, proposed joint production of short films and other documentaries on both sides to encourage a better understanding of each other's countries and foster better connections between the two peoples.

She also suggested the creation of a common pool of content by both Chinese and Indian media for news exchange.

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The forum, held as part of the India-China High-Level Mechanism on Cultural and People-to-People Exchanges, was inaugurated by Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi and Indian External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj.

"Media plays an important role in how the people of India and China perceive and understand each other and incorporating the media forum as part of the high-level mechanism is an important acknowledgment of its role in advancing people-to-people ties between our two countries," Raveesh Kumar, spokesperson of India's Ministry of External Affairs, said.

China was represented at the media forum by representatives from prominent media outlets like CGTN, Xinhua News Agency, China Daily, People's Daily, Global Times, and China Radio International (CRI), while the Indian participation was drawn from, among others, Doordarshan, ANI, Hindustan Times, Economic Times, Rajya Sabha TV and India Writes.

Earlier on Friday, Wang and Swaraj under the new mechanism oversaw an agreement to step up China-India ties in what was described by the Indian minister as "10 pillars" of cooperation – cultural exchange, film and television, museum management, sports, youth exchange, tourism, cooperation at the level of states/provinces and cities, traditional medicine, yoga and education.

A joint think tank forum and a film festival are also being held under the new mechanism.

(Cover Photo: Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi (fifth from left) and Indian External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj (fifth from right) along with participants from both the countries at the third China-India Media Forum in New Delhi, December 21, 2018. /Photo via India's Ministry of External Affairs)