Pakistan and China are today celebrating 55th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties between the two exemplary friendly neighbours. Of course this is an historic event and a matter of real pride and honour for the governments as well as the people of both the countries to have achieved such a milestone.

55 years back, when Pakistan and China were signing the papers to establish formal diplomatic relations, the media, not only in these countries, but also all over the world was, by no means, as fast and as strong tool of information as it is today. With the passage of time, media continued to flourish and attain more and more mature status in both the countries. There is no doubt that Pakistani and Chinese media, both had been playing some role in bringing the people of the two nations closer, yet there was always an acute need of a better and stronger interaction amongst the media personnel from both the countries. Though Chinese publications like China Pictorial (Cheen Baa Tassveer) did come as effective periodicals to bring knowledge about people of China to the people of Pakistan but the need of enhanced media endeavors for enhancing people to people contact continued to increase with rapidly growing importance of media.

Today there are hundreds of newspapers and magazines in Pakistan and the number is far higher in China. Similarly there has been a mushroom growth of electronic media organizations in both the countries, owing to the wonderful media policies adopted by Islamabad and Beijing. Nevertheless, this media development enhanced the onus of the media in both the countries to play more effective and larger role for the promotion of bilateral ties and for the promotion and protection of the Pak-China Friendship. Media personnel from both the countries have been visiting Pakistan and China as part of official delegations, yet there was no pure professional interaction amongst them at the organizational level.

It was only a couple of years back when Mr. Makhdoom Babar, President and Editor-in-Chief of The Daily Mail came up with a new vision for the promotion of media relations between Pakistan and China. To materialize his vision and ideas for serving the cause of Pak-China Friendship through joint media endeavors, Mr. Makhdoom came up with different strategies to form a professional collaboration between Chinese and Pakistani journalists and media organizations. First step in this regard was initiated when The Daily Mail signed a breakthrough accord of professional collaboration with China's top ranking English Daily, China Daily in 2005. This was just the first step in the direction of forging a composite professional collaboration amongst Pakistani and Chinese media. Soon after the signing of the agreement with China Daily, The Daily Mail introduced a new segment in it's daily publications by dedicating one full page to news about China everyday and the same is still in practice with a goal of increasing it to two and ultimately to four pages everyday.

Getting encouraged by the experiment of collaboration with China Daily, President and Editor-in-Chief of The Daily Mail took another initiative and formed Pakistan-China Media Friendship Association the same year. Pak-China Media Friendship Association is a body, formed with the aim to provide journalists of both countries with frequent opportunities to have professional interactions and both formal and informal meetings and other activities. Soon after it's inception, the Association gained an immense response from the journalists of both the countries with a rapidly increasing number of members. Today, the number of registered members of Pak-China Media friendship Association from both the countries is over 250.

As Chairman of Pak-China Media Friendship Association, President of The Daily Mail held it's first function at Beijing in February 2006 with Ambassador of Pakistan to China; His Excellency Mr.Salman Bashir as the Chief Guest. This was the first ever function of it's kind as before this, no media organization could organize such an event in either country. During the ceremony, certificates of excellence were distributed amongst the Chinese journalists and members of the association in recognition of their respective professional achievements and for their services to the cause of promotion of Pak-China Friendship as well for maintaining of high standards of professionalism. A simple yet impressive ceremony for the same purpose was also held at Shanghai during the same period while a function for the same purpose is scheduled to be held at Islamabad soon.

In the next phase, The Daily Mail signed an agreement of professional collaboration with China's number one Chinese language newspaper People's Daily. This agreement also covers the exchange of personnel from both the organizations under a joint study programme for enhancing the professional capabilities of the journalists from both the countries and also with aim of providing them with ample opportunities for learning more and more about socio-economic and geo-political as well cultural scenarios of each other's country. Speaking at the occasion, Mr.Makhdoom vowed to take Pak-China, time tested and all-weather friendship to new horizons through improvised media endeavors. He also stressed on the need for joint efforts by Pakistani and Chinese journalists and media organizations for the promotion and protection of Pak-China ties and for enhancing the people to people contacts amongst the peoples of both the countries. During his meeting with vice President of People's Daily, Mr.Makhdoom offered to publish and circulate four pages of People's Daily's overseas edition in Pakistan. The offer was warmly welcomed and accepted and soon a small edition of People's Daily would be published and circulated along with The Daily Mail throughout Pakistan.

A similar agreement was signed with China's leading and most trusted English language weekly Beijing Review. The Daily Mail extended the same offer of publishing and circulating Beijing Review along with The Daily Mail on monthly basis, which was again welcomed and accepted. After the signing of the agreement, Mr.Makhdoom was also invited to deliver a lecture to the Editorial staff of Beijing Review over the topic of 'Role of Media for peace and harmony and challenges of contemporary scenarios'. President of The Daily Mail, during his lecture, threw light on the importance of national interests and the difference between national interests and professional interests and also elaborated the interpretations of sensational journalism and substantial journalism.

A meeting was also held between President of The Daily Mail and President of leading Chinese magazine China's Talents Professor Wang Xiaopeng. Both discussed a host of issues of bilateral professional interests and agreed on a number of joint ventures, including the signing of agreements of professional collaboration and exchange of personnel. Professor Wang and Mr.Makhdoom also agreed on joint selection of talented people from both the countries and to honour them jointly every year.

The President of The Daily Mail also held detailed discussions with the officials of China Radio International (CRI) and reached a verbal MoU of signing agreement of professional collaboration between the two organizations.The Daily Mail and CRI (Urdu) also agreed on holding of joint quiz programmes and other competitions for the promotion of Pak-China Friendship.

The Daily Mail Chief also gave interview to various Chinese print and electronic media organizations and stressed the need for forging immense professional unity amongst Pakistani and Chinese media organizations and individual professionals for the promotion of Pak-China Friendship and for the mutual and bilateral interests of the two countries.

The Daily Mail's President and Chairman of Pak-China Media Friendship Association Mr.Makhdoom Babar also held detailed parleys with officials of All-China Journalists' Association, a body, having over 7,50,000 Chinese journalists as it's registered members. Officials of All-China Journalists' Association welcomed the formation of Pak-China Media Friendship Association. The Director General of All-China Journalists' Association Mr.Zhu Yinghua informed Mr.Makhdoom that there had been a lot of media exchanges between China and Pakistan from the platform of All-China Journalists' Association but this exchange programme was in a state of disruption for about past 20 years. He expressed the desire of resuming the programme of exchange of media delegations between Pakistan and China in collaboration with Pak-China Media Friendship Association. Chairman of Pak-China Media Friendship Association straightaway welcomed the idea and both parties agreed on the same. A formal agreement in this regard is likely to be signed soon.

Today is the world of media and it is full of a variety of challenges. However, through the media endeavors that The Daily Mail and Pak-China Media Friendship Association have initiated, it can easily be said that the journalists of both Pakistan and China are quite effectively preparing and gearing up to meet all such challenges. Through such efforts and initiatives, journalists from both the countries are getting poised to do for the promotion of Pak-China Friendship and to meet the prevailing global challenges that they or their predecessors could not do in the past 55 years. It can be said that these endeavors are sort of gifts to the people and particularly the journalists of both the countries by The Daily Mail on the event of commemoration of 55 years of Pakistan-China friendship; that is all-weather, time- tested and stronger than mountains and deeper than oceans.

Source: The Daily Mail