ASEAN Editors Attend Dialogue Forum in Batam

Batam, Riau Islands (Antara) - Chief Editors of mass media in ASEAN member countries attended a dialogue forum themed \"The Role of the Media in the ASEAN Community\" held on the sidelines of National Press Day (HPN) event, here, Sunday. \"This event is meant to facilitate talks, dialogues, and discussions,\" Chairman of the Indonesian Chief Editor Forum, Nurjaman Mochtar said here on Sunday. The discussion was carried out in order to commemorate the upcoming ASEAN Economic Community (AEC). The editors-in-chief discussed about plans for media reporting the emerging era of AEC. \"So when we enter a border-less community, the chief editors could also contribute to share ideas, create networking, and exchange information in the future, not only just economic practitioners who will be involved in dialogues on AEC,\" he said. Mochtar said the meeting does not have a target or a special mission, but to bring up a dialogue that supports the disclosure of information. Participants of the meeting were chief editors of mass media from Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand and Singapore. \"In the near future, the participants might increase. This meeting was held to get a wider dialogue amongst chief editors from ASEAN member countries,\" he said. President Director of Indonesian national news agency Antara Saiful Hadi said the idea of the meeting came up during the celebration of Antara\'s anniversary in December 2014. \"I talked to colleagues from Malaysian media about the need to arrange a journalist meeting between the two countries,\" he stated. At that time, said Saiful Hadi, the Malaysian expressed readiness to support the meeting, and then the information was submitted to the chairman of the Indonesian Chief Editor Forum. \"Mr. Nurjaman proposed a meeting that would involve not only chief editors of Indonesia and Malaysia, but also from all ASEAN member countries,\" he noted. Minister of Communication and Informatics Rudiantara appreciated the holding of the meeting as a form of participation of the press industry in the AEC. According to him, the ASEAN mass media could play a role in distributing reports about the strength of the ASEAN member countries as a single community, to the world. Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Minister Dato Seri Ahmad Shabery Cheek said the AEC is not just a show performed by ASEAN member countries, but it concerns about how ASEAN countries build the process together and bring unity between countries and communities. The mass media in ASEAN are expected to disseminate information and build opinions and perceptions concerning those efforts, the minister said. (*)Reported by Rangga Pandu Asmara Jingga