03/09/2014
About WMS
Official website: http://www.worldmediasummit.org
History & Mission
With the arrival of digital age, media organizations see profound changes in business environment and diversified subscriber demands. Traditional media outlets face major challenges as well as unprecedented opportunities. Dealing with severe challenges and winning development opportunities has become a common aspiration of media organizations worldwide.
On the sidelines of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, Mr. Li Congjun, president of Xinhua News Agency, held separate talks with leaders of other world-renowned media organizations such as News Corp., The Associated Press, Thomson Reuters, Kyodo News, the BBC, among others.
They exchanged views on the challenges of the new era and vowed to enhance exchanges and cooperation. They reached consensus that it was necessary to hold a World Media Summit, which would serve as an efficient platform for media organizations to communicate and pool collective wisdom for their survival and development.
Structure & Membership
The WMS has built up its own structure and mechanism, including the Summit, the Presidium and the Secretariat. In 2013, the World Media Summit Foundation was established to support WMS events.
Since 2010, the WMS Presidium has expanded to include AL Jazeera Media Network, the New York Times Company, NBC News, and media from BRICS countries like Kasturi & Sons Limited from India, Grupo Folha from Brazil, and the MIH Group from South Africa. The WMS Presidium now has 15 members.
Achievements & Vision
The WMS has made a series of achievements including the production of important documents such as the World Media Summit Joint Statement (2009), the World Media Summit Convention on the Protection of Intellectual Property Related to Media Results (2012), and the World Media Summit Rules of Procedure (2013).
The WMS Secretariat has organized various training programs, such as the WMS Training Program for Young Journalists from Asia and Africa in 2010 and the WMS Training Program on Reporters' Safety in 2012.
In October 2013, the WMS Presidium meeting decided to set up the Global Awards for Excellence in order to recognize and encourage the world media community to contribute to good journalism, uphold social responsibility and set professional examples.
World Media Summit 2009
The first World Media Summit was successfully held Oct. 8-10, 2009 in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. The summit was jointly initiated by nine global leading media organizations - Xinhua News Agency, News Corp., the Associated Press, Thomson Reuters, ITAR-TASS, Kyodo News, BBC, Turner Broadcasting System, Google Inc., and was organized by Xinhua.
The summit was attended by leaders of more than 170 media organizations from across the world. Then Chinese President Hu Jintao addressed the opening ceremony of the summit, asking global media organizations to contribute to building a harmonious world of lasting peace and common prosperity.
The summit issued the World Media Summit Joint Statement.
World Media Summit 2012
The second World Media Summit, themed "Global Media: Meeting Challenges of the 21st Century", was held July 5-7, 2012 in Moscow, which attracted more than 300 representatives from 213 international media organizations of 102 countries and regions.
The Moscow summit discussed such topics as the development of electronic media, the role of social media, the relationship between media organizations and other businesses, journalistic ethics, etc.
