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Central Propaganda Department: Chinese Media Have the Responsibility and Obligation to Break the Hegemony of Western Media Discourse

In the opening speech at the China Internet Media Forum held in Guangzhou on Nov. 25, 2021, Shen Haixiong, the deputy minister of the Central Propaganda Department and director and editor-in-chief of China Central Radio and Television, stated that Chinese media have the responsibility and obligation to strive to increase their authority and influence in the international public opinion field and to break the long-standing “discourse hegemony” of Western media.

Shen Haixiong said that the Chinese media must promote the formation of an objective, fair, positive and healthy global public opinion ecology, and no longer allow political self-interest, racial discrimination, and ideological prejudice to dominate public opinion and mislead people.

Shen gave two examples of how to control the direction of public opinion.
Shen said that in response to Bloomberg’s false “global anti-(Sars-2) epidemic ranking” this year, China Central Radio and Television used its advantages to organize three rounds of overseas “polls of global netizen’s opinions on fighting the epidemic,” and released a series of influential reports and commentaries regarding the “tracing (of the viral origin) to the United States.”

Shen also said that in recent reports on the situation in Afghanistan, CCTV headquarters seized the exclusive rights, guaranteed the first release, controlled the discourse rights and defined the narratives. It also sent back a large number of exclusive videos of global news and became the main information source of global media. “The headquarters of CGTN microphone was the only media microphone on the stage of the Taliban’s first press conference after the withdrawal of the U.S. military. It continued to disclose the truth about the indiscriminate killings of innocents by the U.S. military, and delivered objective and true first-hand information to the world. It completely shattered the embarrassment that Chinese media could only transmit other media’s reports in international emergencies in the past.”

Source: Zhaobao, November 26, 2021
http://www.kzaobao.com/shiju/20211126/105228.html