Culture

Training Seminar Held for Afghan Journalists in Beijing

Monday, April 17, 2017
Kabul (BNA) Initiated by the Ministry of Commerce of the People’s Republic of China, the 2017-Afghanistan Media Management Seminar (AMMS) was held in Beijing.
Covering tens of media-workers from developing countries including 30 staff from Afghanistan’s government-ran and private newspapers and news agencies, the training course was organized by the Chinese Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM), are foreign aid training programs initiated by the Chinese leadership.
The course received intense attention and strong support from the Chinese government and other developing countries becoming a bridge for friendship and cooperation between China and the related nations.
The main aim of the seminar was to provide a platform for communication and discussion and to enhance traditional friendship and cooperation between China and other developing countries.
Major activities of the courses include themed lectures, workshops, study tours and so on. The project organizer appointed by MOFCOM and invited officials and experts from related departments to brief on China’s development, social and economic policies and measures, especially the achievements of and lessons learned since China’s reform and opening-ups as well as topics closely related to themes of these courses.
The participants are also being taken for study tours to some cities, institutions and companies to offer a glance of the real and developing china, as well as the participants would have opportunities to brief local officials and experts on journalism and economic development of their country during their visit to the friendly country.
The participants would also be provided with return tickets, accommodation and transportation, personal accident insurance, a certain amount of daily pocket money and medical costs for sudden illnesses.
At the outset, Afghanistan government ran dailies Chairman, Dr. Shamsul Haq Aryanfar delivered a short significant speech indicating some key points in connection to the two countries social, economic and cultural similarities.
He thanked the program organizers for providing the opportunity to attend the 20-day media management seminar in Beijing, the capital city of China.
Pointing to the long background of the two countries historical relations and cooperation, Dr. Aryanfar said Afghanistan and China were two parts of the world seven ancient continent and that Afghanistan (Ariana) and China have been two great empires of the historical era, with the Silk Road connecting the two nations, starting from China and that the country was the transferring center of Buddhism to other parts of South Asian countries.
“Afghanistan was the main hub of the seven great Buddhism world,” he said adding as the holy Islam has instructed the believers [to get knowledge even if accessed in Seen] (the Arabic name of China.)
“This is why, we are here to attend this seminar and that to further enhance our knowledge,” he continued.
Afghanistan is a historical and ancient country, with a 140-years of media activity, and the first newspaper which was published in 1875, was called Shamsunahar, the second Sarajulakhbar weekly, which was published in 1911, according to him.
During 20th century, Afghanistan’s mass media passed 4 periods of freedom. From 1919 to 1928, this was the first period that Afghanistan accepted the first mass media law and likewise, at that time, beside the government news, three private newspapers started their activities, said Aryanfar continuing the second and third periods have been 1925 and 1943.
The last period was a free mass media activity, getting operational from 2001 up to now, during which the country passed the new law of mass media, and succeeded to develop the freedom of press and expression.
Right now, in Afghanistan there are 80 newspapers including private and government ran and currently there are 390 weeklies, 170 monthly magazines, 75 TV channels, more than 250 radio stations, 50 news agencies and 38 journalism training centers operating in the country, he described expressing hope for such cooperation from China to be continued with Afghanistan media in the future.
Thereinafter, the first lecturer, Jain Weiqiang, State Council Information Officer on Tuesday last week, warmly welcomed the Afghan Seminar participants as saying: “We share the same experience of common efforts to fight against foreign invasion. But long before that, we also share the same experience of ancient civilization.”
Referring to speech of Dr. Shamsulhaq Aryanfar, Head of Afghanistan’s government dailies, he said as this gentlemen pointed out in his speech, the Chinese and Afghan civilizations are two parts of the seven world civilization.
“Whenever I go to the South Asian countries, Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka and other countries, I saw the influence of ancient Afghan civilization. So we have our glory in our history and that is the vital part of our history, our history and our culture. It is part of our blood,” he said.
Weiqiang added however, “We cherish that,” but insisted that cherishing was not enough, but we should inherit it and develop it. We have to teach the young generation about our glory. But at the same time, based on which culture root we have to develop, economically, politically, through our own efforts and also through international cooperation.
The Chinese State Council Information Officer pointed out similarities of the two countries and said actually he had done some homework about some similarities between the two countries, but he thought they were very symbolic, like mulberry as a national tree, as the leaves of this tree, he said was the food for silkworm. “So I can imagine maybe this is why Afghanistan has been so important connection between the east and the west along the silk-road.
He pointed out some other similarities between the two countries as saying both nations were heavily depended on agriculture and pointing to the design of Afghanistan national emblem, the professor queried and then jointly with the participants responded that the designs of both Afghan and China emblems was wheatears, indicating the two countries’ agricultural similarity.
Another similarity on people, he said both countries were very hardworking and lauded the Afghan people of being friendly, hardworking and diligent. “We have so many similarities and we can learn from each other. For the Chinese part we have made a great achievement that benefited the Chinese people. But before we make everybody comfortable, economically stable, and can support themselves, we have to make further effects.”
There is a long way to go. First, to help them reach their targets. The national government has set up a target, for the moderately prosperous society, a moderately comfortable life for the Chinese people by 2020.
“As a journalist, I have been observing the development in my own country for the past 30 years, he continued. And my observations had told me that political stability is one of the vital criteria for China. There has been ups and downs in China over the past 40 year, but largely speaking, as a country and as a nation, China has been stable,” he concluded.
After the first term of the program, the participants visited some cultural sites and media centers including Xinhua News Agency, China’s national news agency as well as global information network.

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