Sri Lankan expert Maya Majueran urged greater collaboration between media and think tanks among the member states of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) to foster political trust, understanding and strengthen people-to-people relations.
Maya Majueran, founding director of the Belt and Road Initiative Sri Lanka, made these remarks in a recent interview with Xinhua ahead of the SCO Media and Think Tank Summit to which he has been invited.
According to Majueran, the international environment is undergoing a massive transformation with the economic emergence of the Global South, new geopolitical realities and increasing demands for a reform of the global governance system.
He added that many developing countries are calling for the creation of an international order that is more inclusive and more representative of the economic realities of the day and that allows for more voice to emerging economies.
Meanwhile, he warned that conflicting narratives, false information and geopolitical competition could impact public perception and undermine trust in international cooperation, thereby making it more crucial than ever for cooperation between SCO media organizations and think tanks.
In his observations, Majueran noted that global news coverage has been dominated by a handful of key international media outlets that tend to convey Western political and economic views for many years.
Although these voices have helped shape the global conversation, he noted they haven’t necessarily reflected the varied experiences, priorities and development trajectories of countries in the Global South.
The landscape is now shifting, he said, noting that media and think tanks from SCO member states and the wider Global South are increasingly adding new narratives, evidence-based research and local analysis allowing people to compare development models and make informed judgments based on evidence and not a single narrative.
But there is no single model of development because every country has its own history, culture, economic conditions and aspirations and must pick its path of development that is most suitable to its people.
He said that the role of the media and think tanks is complementary: think tanks would provide in-depth and policy research and the media would take these insights and present them to wider audiences in a way that’s accessible and objective, thereby encouraging informed dialogue and countering misinformation with facts.
Majueran suggested that the SCO media and think tanks intensify their cooperation in areas of economic development, infrastructure connectivity, energy security, climate change, digital transformation, and regional peace and security, as well as create more joint research and multilingual content.
He said it is not sufficient to just share information; it is a matter of strengthening the trust between the two and sharing collective wisdom and developing future talent.
Majueran expressed hope the summit would build closer ties among journalists, researchers and policy experts and mark the beginning of a stronger, more coordinated voice for the SCO in international public discourse.
Tayyaba Afzal is an International Relations Graduate from Lahore College for Women University. Her research interests include Information Warfare, AI Governance and Digital Diplomacy. She can be reached at [email protected]
