Underlining the importance of media in bringing closer people of Pakistan and China, the Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting Senator Tariq Azim Khan has called for stepping up exchange of TV programmes between the two countries.
"We have excellent relations in various fields, but we also like to establish strong and deep-rooted contacts at people to people level with the Chinese friends, even at village level," he said during a meeting with the Deputy Editor-in-Chief of China Central Television (CCTV) Cheng Hong.
The Minister of State, who visited the CCTV head office on Wednesday, stressed the need for boosting exchange of news reports, documentaries, short stories, dramas and other informative material through Pakistan Television Corporation (PTV) and China Central Television (CCTV).
Such exchanges would help Chinese and Pakistan people in learning more about the history, culture, tourism and economic activities that were taking place in both the countries, he said. Tariq Azim said that PTV was ready to send documentaries, short stories, dramas, information on tourism and daily news reports to CCTV and it would welcome Chinese programmes on PTV.
"We believed that co-operation between the two television channels can contribute a lot in showing a true picture of political, socio-economic and other activities in our countries," he said. He said that the exchange of programmes would also avoid dependence on western media, which some time fails to project the true picture.
Congratulating the CCTV for making excellent preparations to telecast the upcoming Beijing Olympics, he said that Pakistanis being true friend of China hoped from the core of their hearts that the games would be organised in an excellent manner.
"To increase our presence in media here, we are going to deploy soon one correspondent each from Pakistan Broadcasting Corporation (PBC) and Pakistan Television Corporation," he said, adding that it is also important that both countries should share their experience in the field of media.
On the occasion Tariq Azim also proposed co-productions in drama, short stories and documentaries on tourism and culture. "This is very important not only for the two countries, but also for the international viewers," he said. "We are going to hold China Week in Pakistan and Pakistan Week in China on yearly basis and would like that CCTV should also take part in these events," he said.
Tariq Azim said that PTV and CCTV have already signed MoU for exchange of programmes and added that now is the time to give it a practical shape. The Minister of State presented CDs and printed material to the Deputy Editor-in-Chief of China Central Television (CCTV) Cheng Hong and said, "we are ready to provide more such useful material if the same are translated here in Chinese language."
Welcoming the minister and members of his delegation, Cheng Hong said that the suggestions presented by him were very valuable and he would study the same before giving them final shape.
He said that if PTV provides transcripts of various dramas, short stores and documentaries on Pakistan his organisation would make every effort to translate the same in Chinese language. The Deputy Editor-in-Chief said that co-productions and closer co-operation would certainly be helpful in learning more about each other.
He said that CCTV would celebrate its 50th anniversary close to Beijing Olympic next year and it would be a source of delight for us if the minister also attended these celebrations.
CCTV broadcasts over 230,000 hours of programming; 631 hours a day on 30 channels, 12 of which broadcast 24 hours a day, besides Pay-TV and HDTV broadcasts. He said that CCTV would launch two new channels, one in Russian and the other in Arabic from next year.
Like, other TV channels, he said the CCTV was also making preparations to face the challenge of Internet Television. Later, the media delegation was taken round various sections of CCTV including the master control room.