| Azaraimy HH in Thailand |
JOURNALISTS in ASEAN should work together to promote people-to-people connection within the region, as theirs is an important profession that can play a key role in building bridges and bringing about unity and better understanding between people of different backgrounds and cultures.
Confederation of Thai Journalists President Pramed Lekpetch noted this during the opening of the Working Visit Programme of the Confederation of ASEAN Journalists (CAJ) in Bangkok, Thailand on Monday.
The June 17 – 26 programme sees the involvement of 15 journalists from ASEAN member countries.
The CAJ Working Visit Programme is co-organised by the Confederation of Thai Journalists (CTJ) and Lao Journalists Association (LJA) in cooperation with the Ministry of Tourism and Sports of Thailand, Tourism Authority of Thailand, AirAsia, Bangkok Airways, Bangkok Metropolitan Administration, CH Karnchang Public Company and Asia Hotel.
“For ASEAN to move forward and stand up to the challenges of the world, ASEAN journalists must become one, understand one another, unify and cooperate with each other, while prioritising people-to-people connection,” Lekpetch added.
Also speaking during the event’s opening was Thai Minister of Tourism and Sports Weerasak Kowsurat.
Commenting on the programme, he said, “It is organised to promote a better relationship between media professionals within ASEAN plus China.
“During this week-long programme, the participating journalists will be making field trips to a number of key tourism spots in Thailand and Lao PDR.”
Kowsurat noted that the programme coincides with Thailand’s ‘Amazing Thailand Tourism Year 2018’ and Lao PDR’s ‘Visit Laos 2018’ tourism promotion campaigns.
“For Thailand, the Ministry of Tourism and Sports, and the Tourism Authority of Thailand have organised a number of tourism promotion initiatives in areas such as community and cultural tourism as well as environmental or eco-tourism, including making efforts to promote tourism industries in Thailand to both domestic and foreign tourists.
“We are also promoting awareness of creative tourism to preserve key tourist locations in Thailand as part of overall efforts to promote sustainable development in this country. With this policy, we hope that the revenue generated from the tourism industries will bring a positive cascading effect to other sectors within the Thai economy and benefit the local communities. I hope all participants in this programme will be able to learn and take away something from the tourism promotion initiatives in Thailand and Laos, and put your experiences to good use in your respective countries,” he added.
The CAJ, one of the oldest and most active regional media organisations in Southeast Asia, was established as a forum for cooperation among ASEAN journalists in 1975, eight years after the formation of the ASEAN.
Among its other key objectives is to promote a healthy, free and responsible press, which the organisation views as crucial to national development.
As the bloc evolved and expanded, so has the membership of CAJ, which now comprises Persatuan Wartawan Indonesia (PWI), National Union of Journalists Malaysia (NUJM), National Press Club of the Philippines (NPC), Singapore National Union of Journalists (SNUJ), Confederation of Thai Journalists (CTJ), Vietnam Journalists Association (VJA), Laos Journalists Association (LJA), and the Club of Cambodian Journalists (CCJ) of Cambodia.
The presidency of the CAJ rotates among its members every two years and is currently held by the CTJ.