Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.uz) — Participants at the 7th World Media Summit in Beijing adopted the Beijing Consensus, in which representatives of media organisations, think tanks, government agencies, and international and regional organisations expressed their readiness to work together to advance global media in the age of artificial intelligence. The summit is being held from 5 to 9 November under the theme “Media in the AI Era: From Consensus to Action”.
The document notes that AI is ushering in a new stage of technological and industrial transformation, changing how people live and work, as well as the broader landscape of global development. Participants pledged to promote the inclusive and responsible use of AI in the media industry, ensuring that technological advances benefit media organisations in all countries, regardless of their level of development. They also called for objective and impartial reporting, efforts to combat disinformation, and the creation of channels for rational dialogue on global challenges. The signatories intend to draw on the strengths of the media, strengthen consensus among stakeholders and turn cooperation into tangible results.
During the summit, Xinhua News Agency presented its Global Media Initiative and the Framework Document on Global Media Cooperation in AI. The agency also demonstrated its “Xinhua Yudian” AI agent.
The summit was jointly organised by Xinhua News Agency and the Beijing Municipal People's Government. According to the organisers, around 500 representatives from nearly 330 organisations in 112 countries and regions were invited. They include leading media organisations, think tanks, government agencies, the United Nations and other international organisations. The organisers aimed to set a record in terms of the number of countries and organisations represented, as well as the seniority of delegates.
In the summit's concept document, the organisers describe the international environment as volatile and complex. It identifies overcoming development gaps, addressing security dilemmas, strengthening exchanges between civilisations and improving global governance as common challenges facing humanity. The authors argue that addressing these challenges requires not only economic and technological strength but also cultural influence. They see the media's mission as connecting the world, fostering mutual understanding and building consensus.
The document's authors note that intelligent technologies are reshaping the entire media workflow, from news gathering and content production to distribution and management. These technologies can improve efficiency, diversify formats and expand audience reach. At the same time, the organisers say, AI creates new challenges, including the spread of disinformation, increased algorithmic bias and a widening technological divide. Priorities for international media cooperation include technology exchange and capacity-building, equal access for countries of the Global South, and the safe, fair and inclusive development of AI.
The summit's programme covers five themes. The first focuses on AI solutions for news gathering, production and distribution, as well as newsroom management. Participants are discussing ways to encourage media organisations and technology companies to share multilingual text corpora, editorial tools and training resources. Another issue is how to provide affordable AI services to countries of the Global South and smaller media organisations. This session also addresses human oversight of AI-generated outputs and mutual recognition of standards for data security, content labelling and algorithmic transparency.
The second theme concerns media cooperation in responding to non-traditional security challenges, including energy and food security and climate change. Topics include joint reporting and regular cooperation mechanisms for fact-checking, source tracking and crisis communications. The third theme examines AI's role in exchanges between civilisations. Participants are considering whether AI could lead to the erosion of cultural differences and how it can be used to strengthen local narratives and amplify diverse voices.
The fourth theme focuses on global communications governance. Participants are discussing how media organisations can define acceptable boundaries for the use of AI agents and the labelling of deep-synthesis content. The discussions also cover content traceability, algorithmic transparency and data security. Expanding the participation of countries from the Global South in developing rules is another issue under consideration. The fifth theme, “The Beijing Approach: Decoding Chinese Modernisation”, is based on field visits focusing on the development of Beijing's sub-centre, preservation of the historic capital, megacity governance and green development.
Among the expected outcomes listed in the concept document was the release of the Blue Book “AI Plus Media: Global Development Report 2026”. The organisers also planned to present a humanoid robot news anchor, which they described as the world's first. Other planned events included photo exhibitions, a presentation of a book on China's governance and a digital roadshow titled “China's Solutions for Sustainable Development”.
The World Media Summit was founded in 2009 by Xinhua News Agency and several leading global media organisations. Over the past 17 years, six summits have been held in China, Russia and Qatar, along with four presidium meetings. Under the summit's auspices, the Global Awards for Excellence are presented, media training programmes are organised, and charitable reporting initiatives are conducted. The organisers describe the summit as one of the world's largest platforms for media cooperation and compare it to the “Olympics of the media”.
