Nusa Dua, Bali (ANTARA News) - The Director General of Information and Public Communication at Indonesia's Ministry of Communications and Information Technology Niken Widiastuti said media should keep pace with technological advancement and develop positive content to educate people.

"Media should more proactively improve the content to counter the impact of widely available negative content that panders to radicalism, pornography and hate speech and is easily accessible on social media," Niken stated at the opening of the 85th Asia Pacific Broadcasting Union (ABU) in Nusa Dua, Bali on Monday.

She noted that the media is currently passing through a period of transformation where technological development and social and political upheavals have led to pervasive negative information on social media.

In order to counter such negative content that can make to a "blacklist," Niken proposed that the media should counter this with a "whitelist" of content that carries positive information.

"News reports that underline a sense of optimism and talk about peace and development should consistently appear in the media," she added.

Indonesian media is expected to avail of the advantage offered by the 85th ABU to improve technology, broadcast management and content development.

Niken hoped that as the host of ABU, Indonesia has the opportunity to conduct Track Two diplomacy by developing its news broadcast content and network.

The Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union, formed in 1964, is a non-profit, professional association of broadcasting organisations.

It currently has over 280 members in 57 countries and regions, reaching a potential audience of about 3 billion people.(*)

Editor: Heru Purwanto
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