​Shanghai Cooperation Organization forum urges formation of independent media

Participants at a conference attended by the heads of leading Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) media outlets have called for the establishment of independent media to stand up against Western propaganda, Press TV reports.

The forum of the heads of the leading SCO media outlets, dubbed "Towards a Common SCO Information Space," was organized in the Russian capital, Moscow, on June 28. Strategies to counteract challenges and threats in the global information field was among the main issues which was discussed during the forum.

"This forum is very important because it brings up an issue about alternative means of fighting against the distortion of the reality by the Western media," said Mohammad Akhgari, the director of the World Service of the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB), who was one of the participants in the conference.

The top executive at Iran’s state radio and television named the Iranian satellite news network Press TV and Spanish-language Hispan TV, the Russian English-language news channel RT, the Chinese state television broadcaster CCTV, and TeleSURE, the Venezuelan pan–Latin American terrestrial and satellite television network, as outstanding alternatives to Western media. He said those are "among the independent media that are spreading the truth."

The participants in the forum also stressed the need to break the monopoly of the Western media.

"Our declared goal is to have an alternative to the mainstream Western media,” Dmitry Kiselev, the head of official Russian state-owned international news agency Rossiya Segodnya, told Press TV.

He added, "Each of the SCO countries is faced with informational aggression. It exists against China, Iran, Russian, and India. We have gained experience in how to deal with it and we need to share it."

The media heads also compared ways of media development within the SCO space and discussed existing challenges and mechanisms to address the issues jointly.

The participants discussed forming a common SCO information space and stressed a unified stance against efforts by Western media to distort reality, especially in the Middle East.

According to Russia’s Sputnik news agency, the event, which is organized by Rossiya Segodnya and Russia's Federal Agency for Press and Mass Media, was attended by representatives of the Xinhua news agency (China), IRNA (Iran), TRT (Turkey), Kabar National News Agency (Kyrgyzstan), Khovar National Information Agency (Tajikistan), RTRK Kazakhstan, and India Today Group.

At present, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization has six permanent members: China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan.

Iran, India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Mongolia are observer states of the SCO while Turkey, Sri Lanka, and Belarus are "dialogue partners" of the organization.

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