Between November 30 and December 1, 2015, the first BRICS Media Summit was held in Beijing, China. As the first ever high-end gathering for dialogue and exchange by mainstream media from the BRICS countries, the Summit was attended by the leaders of 25 media organizations including news agencies, newspapers, radio, television broadcasters and Internet media.

Under the theme “Innovation, Development, Cooperation and Trust”, in-depth exchanges were held on three topics: Media’s role in promoting a closer partnership among BRICS countries, deepening BRICS’ media exchanges and cooperation and how traditional and new media both complement and converge. We assessed ways in which BRICS media could better cooperate against the backdrop of increasingly closer ties overall among the BRICS countries.

We hold that the world is undergoing profound and complicated change. We are living in a multi-polar world and economic globalization continues to unfold. Cultural diversification and information explosion both continue to evolve. The BRICS countries have already become important forces in international relations and active builders of the current international system. Deepening ties among the BRICS countries have provided ample opportunity for the development of media and for the strengthening of media exchanges and cooperation. We hope that our media colleagues take this chance to effectively bring about a media revolution among our countries.

We believe that media plays an irreplaceable role in promoting cooperation between nations. We reiterate that we will enhance friendship and mutual understanding among BRICS’ peoples and promote mutually beneficial cooperation in economic, social and other fields through objective, impartial, comprehensive and timely reporting. We will also explore ways to strengthen multilateral and bilateral cooperation in reporting, so that we may come together and tell stories that truthfully reflect BRICS’ cooperation.

We know very well that the fast development of the Internet and digital technology has profoundly changed the global media environment. We exchanged views on how to propel traditional and new media’s complementary and integrated development. We propose that BRICS media organizations follow new trends in information dissemination and propel change with innovation while following the rules of news transmission and new media development.

We hope that all forms of media in BRICS countries, in keeping with the BRICS spirit of openness, inclusiveness, cooperation and win-win, may promote pragmatic cooperation and common development, and enhance communication and mutual trust with media organizations in BRICS and other countries.

The BRICS Media Summit was first proposed by Xinhua News Agency and jointly launched with Empresa Brasil de Comunicacao S/A - EBC, International Information Agency “Rossiya Segodnya”, The Hindu Group, and Independent Media. The first Summit was hosted by Xinhua News Agency.

The leaders of the five co-initiators and People’s Daily, China Central Television, China Radio International, China Daily, Correio Braziliense, Daily Commerce, Industry & Services, Folha de S Paulo, O POVO Communication Group, Rossiyskaya Gazeta, Russia Today TV, Russian State TV and Radio Broadcasting Company, TASS Russian News Agency, The India Today Group, NDTV Group Ltd., The Outlook Group, Press Trust of India, African News Agency, Independent Online, Media 24 and News 24 were present at the Summit.?