2024 Global South Media Forum Opens in South Africa

The “Global South Media and Think Tank High-End Forum China-Africa Partners Conference”(全球南方”媒體智庫高端論壇中非夥伴大會)  was held in Johannesburg, South Africa, from November 13-14, 2024, co-hosted by Xinhua News Agency (新華社), the African Union, and Independent Media. More than 200 representatives from more than 160 media outlets, think tanks, and government departments from China and 41 African countries attended, Xinhua reported. Participants discussed building media partnerships to shape international narratives and challenge what the forum characterized as Western dominance over global governance and narrative systems. Independent Media Group Chairman Iqbal Survé (伊克巴爾·瑟弗) — whose companies have come under investigation in recent years for potential state capture and corruption — said the Global South’s call for its “rightful place” (應有之位) in international narratives should not be ignored. In a bylined column in Zambia’s The Star earlier in November 2025, Survé directly appropriated Xi Jinping’s “shared future” discourse to promote greater BRICS cooperation. The Johannesburg forum launched an action plan for coordinating China-Africa media cooperation through joint news coverage, content sharing, journalist training, and collaborative digital platforms.