The leading media in Asia will collaborate to promote World News Day in a bid to raise awareness of the importance of professional newsrooms and quality journalism for proper governance and society in the region.
Fifteen editors from Asia agreed yesterday to produce content to mark the day, which falls on May 2.
World News Day was started last year by the Canadian Journalism Foundation to celebrate the work of journalists and raise awareness of the value of fair, independent journalism.
The plan to lend their support was one of the initiatives proposed by the media honchos who gathered in Singapore for the inaugural meeting of the World Editors Forum (WEF) Asia Chapter.
The WEF is an established network for print and digital editors of newspapers and news organisations around the world.
It is part of the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (Wan-Ifra), which represents more than 18,000 publications, 15,000 online sites and over 3,000 companies in more than 120 countries.
The new Asia Chapter will be formally launched today at the Publish Asia conference, which kicked off yesterday at the Novotel Singapore On Stevens. It is organised by Wan-Ifra and will run until tomorrow.
During the discussion at the revamped newsroom of The Straits Times, the editors also brainstormed ideas to improve capacities across newsrooms in Asia.
Details of their plans will be announced at the launch today.
The editors agreed that this initiative was timely as newsrooms face many common challenges and need to collaborate to address pressing issues.
Besides discussing how to improve the media industry, the members of the new Asia Chapter also elected The Straits Times editor Warren Fernandez as its founding chairman.
Mr Fernandez, who is also editor-in-chief of Singapore Press Holdings' (SPH) English/Malay/Tamil Media Group, said: "We had a very good discussion on the common challenges we all face in our newsrooms, and agreed that we should collaborate to tackle them.
"WEF and Wan-Ifra have a wealth of experience and expertise we can tap. Coming together as an Asia Chapter of WEF will allow the needs and concerns of our newsrooms in Asia to be properly aired and reflected."
After the meeting, the editors toured The Straits Times newsroom and were shown its news facilities, such as a central operations hub and video production studios, aimed at enabling The Straits Times to produce more multi-media content to engage its audience and meet their changing needs.
Later in the day, chief executives and publishers on the Wan-Ifra's Asia-Pacific Committee also held a meeting in the newsroom, hosted by SPH deputy chief executive Anthony Tan.
The other founding members of the Asia Chapter comprise editorial leaders from The Bangkok Post, Viet Nam News, Indonesia's Antara news agency and The Jakarta Post, Malaysia's Bernama news agency, Star Media Group and Sin Chew Media Corporation, South Korean daily JoongAng Ilbo, Singapore's Mediacorp, Cambodia's Post Media Co and The Phnom Penh Post, Hong Kong's South China Morning Post, Taiwan's United Daily News as well as Bangladesh's The Daily Star.
On the plans to promote World News Day, The Daily Star editor and publisher Mahfuz Anamstressed the importance of the media regaining the trust of readers in the age of social media and fake news.
"If we hang on to our ethical principles, which we have inherited over the years and then modernise it with the technology available, we are going to regain our strengths, serve our audience better and get democracy back," he said.
