On 25 February 2014, the ASEAN Foundation and KBR68H (Radio News Agency 68H) with the support from the Japan – ASEAN Solidarity Fund held a Roundtable Discussion and Public Forum themed “ASEAN on the Move: The Role of Broadcasters Towards the ASEAN Community 2015”.
A number of topics were addressed at the roundtable discussion such as regional media cooperation, reporting diversity in ASEAN, the media landscape after the 2015 ASEAN Community, and preparing the newsroom to accurately report on the ASEAN Community. The Director-General of Information and Public Communication, Ministry of Communication and Information of the Republic of Indonesia, Mr. Freddy Tulung, delivered a keynote speech at the roundtable discussion.
Participants and resource persons came from the public and private news, television, and radio agencies of the ASEAN countries. They were: Voice of Democracy (VOD, Cambodia), the National Television of Kampuchea (Cambodia), Kantor Berita Radio 68H (KBR68H, Indonesia), Radio Republic Indonesia (RRI, Indonesia), Tempo TV (Indonesia), Elsinta Radio (Indonesia), Kompas TV (Indonesia), Lao National Radio (Lao PDR), BFM (Malaysia), Durian FM (Malaysia), the Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB, Myanmar), Mizzima Media (Myanmar), DZBB of GMA Network (the Philippines), 938LIVE of Media Corps (Singapore), Academic Institute of Public Media at Thai PBS (Thailand), FM100 (Thailand), Voice of Vietnam 5 (VOV5, Viet Nam), Vietnam Television (Viet Nam).
The following day on 26 February 2014, the public forum was held. Around 100 participants attended comprising delegations from the ASEAN Member States, broadcast students from a number of reputable universities in Jakarta. The Ambasador of China to ASEAN, H. E. Mme. Yang Xiuping, the Director-General of ASEAN Cooperation of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Indonesia, H. E. Mr. I Gusti Agung Wesaka Puja, and representatives from the Indonesian Permanent Mission to ASEAN, and Minister Counselor of Mission of Japan to ASEAN, Ms. Takako Ito, were in attendance.
The Public Forum was broadcasted live through Green Radio 89,2FM Jakarta with the topic “ASEAN on the Move: Challenges and Opportunities for the United ASEAN Family”. Panelists included Mr. Danny Lee, Director for Community Affairs Directorate of ASEAN Secretariat, Ms. Debbie Stothard, Secretary-General of the International Federation for Human Rights, (FIDH), Ms. Irene Fernandez, Executive Director of Tenaganita, Ms. Septania H. Kadir, Head of Programs of The ASEAN Foundation, Mr. Adrian Elkana, Founder of Castle Production – Indonesia’s biggest animation company. The talkshow was moderated by Ms. Rebecca Henschke from KBR68H.
At the end of this two-day event, it was hoped that participants would have more understanding on how broadcasters could play their role in building the ASEAN Community by establishment of working group among the participants. The ASEAN Foundation intends to work closely with the media in the next three years to promote greater ASEAN awareness and people-to-people interaction to achieve our stated mandate.