ASEAN-Russian Media Solve Gap Within World Information

Jakarta (Antara Bali) - The Indonesian National News Agency "Antara" has urged the ASEAN and Russian media to play more active role in effort to overcome a gap within the world information flow.

Antara's Editor in Chief, Akhmad Kusaeni made the statement in his speech entitled "The Role of ASEAN, Russian Media in Bridging the Information Gap" at the "ASEAN-Russian Media Summit" which took place in Moscow on Tuesday.

"Until now, there is a gap within the world information flow. And that is why the world is not flat. So, it is time for us to challenge Western domination in reporting regional events with objective, fair and comprehensive coverage," Kusaeni said.

According to him around 80 percent of the international news stories everyday come from Western news agencies.

"It is not right that Western media control the agenda of the media in a continent with two-thirds of the world's population, or 3.7 billion people," he noted.

He also said that the world is not flat, because it is a fact that the world is in a reality a slop on which information flows downward from developed countries to developing countries and regions.

"ASEAN and Russia are our home. We know exactly what happen in our backyard. We know better than parachute journalists from Western media who come to our countries for a week or a month, and then they claimed to be experts on ASEAN or Russian issues," he disclosed.

According to Kusaeni developed countries, which have one seventh of the world population, have dominated two thirds of the total information flow. (*/M038)