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A news agency to share Asia with the world

Many Asian news organisations rely on the dominant global news agencies – Agence France-Presse, the Associated Press, and Reuters – for news about the region, which is then consumed by readers, viewers and listeners.

Many Asian news organisations rely on the dominant global news agencies – Agence France-Presse, the Associated Press, and Reuters – for news about the region, which is then consumed by readers, viewers and listeners.

But as one speaker at the inaugural Asia Media Forum in Incheon, South Korea, pointed out, there is a tendency towards a Western bias in reporting news on Asia by these agencies, and this could could affect relations between countries in Asia, and serve only the interests of Western nations, to a certain extent.

To avoid this, the speaker, JM Nualla from the Philippines’ GMA Network, proposed developing an Asian news agency.

Mr Nualla was encouraged that the entry of media networks such as Singapore-based Channel NewsAsia, Al Jazeera – headquartered in Qatar - and Asia News Network, based in Thailand, would end the dominance of Western media in reporting on Asia.

But these are separate entities – there is no unified whole. Mr Nualla thus proposed an Asian news agency to “unify all news across Asia in a single trusted news source” for the world, especially in an age when Asia is seen as the next economic powerhouse. “This prospect should be used by Asian media organisations to their advantage, to pave the way towards the establishment of a globally-recognized Asian news source.”

The proposal clearly resonated with other speakers at the Forum, who took it up during their presentations.

But how would an Asian news agency fit in here? Not all media organisations may turn to Channel NewsAsia – or any of the individual country agencies – for news about Asia. As Mr Nualla highlighted, an Asian news agency can unify news across Asia – ensuring that news from the region has its due place on the world stage, bringing global attention to this part of the world that is ever growing in importance.

There would be challenges in setting up an Asian news agency – some basic considerations would be the location of its headquarters, the language or languages that it would use, and whether it would cover the range from print to television to online media.

Perhaps the bigger issue is that it may be years before more Asian media organisations gain world recognition as credible news sources, given “political, economic, and social constraints that make it difficult to promote a healthy exchange of information” across the continent. He also pointed to “the differences in media ownership and control in Asia” as “the biggest challenge towards the goal of an Asian voice in global media”. Also, can any news agency truly be a “genuine and unbiased” voice? Even if they are, what about the media organisations that use the information they provide? And if Western-based news agencies can be accused of a Western bias, can the same be applied to an Asian news agency?

An Asian news agency to share views of Asia with the world, rather than just the Western agencies sharing their views of Asia – even to Asia itself. Food for thought indeed for the next Asia Media Forum.

The writer is an Executive Editor with Channel NewsAsia

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