ASEAN, Timor Leste journalists meet with ASEAN Sec-Gen

July 14, 2012

MANILA, July 16 -- A group of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and Timor Leste journalists met with ASEAN Secretary-General Surin Pitsuwan over a working lunch in Phnom Penh, Cambodia last weekend.

A press statement from the ASEAN said among the topics discussed during the meeting were the agenda of the ASEAN Ministerial Meeting (AMM) and ASEAN Regional Forum, including progress on the ASEAN Human Rights Declaration draft and a resolution to the dispute over the South China.

The lunch was the 14th time a group of alumni of the “Reporting on ASEAN” training program was granted an exclusive interview with the ASEAN secretary-general. The training and the subsequent reporting on ASEAN conferences are part of the collaboration between ASEAN Secretariat and Deutsche Gesellschaft fuer Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH towards ASEAN Community Building to achieve greater outreach.

The training programs enable a greater number of journalists from ASEAN member-states to cover key events and have the ASEAN messages spread widely throughout the region, ASEAN said.

ASEAN said Surin spent an hour with the journalists, describing this year’s AMM as an example of ASEAN’s central role in the region. He also gave some background on the draft Declaration and ASEAN’s move to propose a Code of Conduct for the parties involved in the maritime dispute.

Up to this year, The Secretariat and GIZ have held 25 media training courses, attended by over 160 journalists from member-states thus far, have covered reporting on ASEAN, Regional Integration and the ASEAN Charter. The courses have been scheduled strategically. Many held surrounding the ASEAN Summits, Foreign Ministers Meeting, Regional Forum, Economic Ministers Meeting. This timing has allowed greater number of journalists from ASEAN member-states to cover key ASEAN events and having the ASEAN messages be more widely spread throughout the region. (ASEAN)