More than 400 journalists from some 110 news organizations
worldwide flocked to a southern China town to cover the annual
conference of the Boao Forum for Asia (BFA), slated to open
Saturday.?
The coming of so many journalists from around the world
indicated the growing influence of the forum of senior politicians,
scholars and business people, an official with the secretariat said
Thursday.
Among the journalists, over 300 are from 77 Chinese media
organizations in the Chinese mainland, including major newspapers,
news agencies, television and radio stations and about 100 are from
overseas, according to Lu Guangjin, a senior coordinator of the BFA
secretariat.
In the previous BFA annual meetings, news reporters were mainly
from China, Japan and the Republic of Korea.
"This year, quite a few are from Southeast Asian countries and
major world-class news organizations such as the Associated Press,"
Lu said.
Chinese major media including China Central Television, China
National Radio, China Radio International and key websites such as
Xinhuanet (www.xinhuanet.com) and the China Economic Net
(www.ce.cn) will broadcast the event live.
This is the third annual conference of the BFA, located in Boao
Town in the east of China's southernmost island province of Hainan,
since its founding in 2001.
(Xinhua News Agency April 23, 2004)