Russia's Sputnik news agency proposes developing a shared platform for BRICS news agencies, Dmitry Gornostaev, deputy editor-in-chief of Sputnik's parent company the Rossiya Segodnya international media group, said at a media forum in South Africa.
"At our last face-to-face media forum in Sao Paulo [Brazil] in 2019, Sputnik agency proposed to create an integrated online platform for sharing news feeds of leading BRICS agencies," he said.
According to Gornostaev, the first step has already been accomplished in cooperation with South Africa's leading agency, ANA, and China's global agency Xinhua. The agencies' news are available in each other's editorial terminals, he added.
"We are open to the similar exchange on a bilateral basis with news agencies of other countries. And we are ready to further develop the idea of a common integrated information platform for news agencies of the BRICS countries. We should communicate, talk and listen to each other directly, without CNN and BBC," Gornostaev stressed.
According to him, it is very important to get verified and precise information from each other, "not tainted by narratives and fakes of the West."
The deputy editor-in-chief added that Russia should not get news from Africa from Western media reports. Likewise, African countries should learn about what Russia is up to from Russian journalists.
In the same way, interaction should be established between the media of all BRICS countries, Gornostaev concluded.
At the Second Russia-Africa Summit held in St. Petersburg in July, Sputnik signed five documents on cooperation with leading media outlets on the African continent - Gambia News Agency, APS (Senegal), Mauritania's AMP, as well as media groups Radio Africa Group from Kenya and New Vision from Uganda.
Earlier, journalists from African news outlets traveled to Russia to attend master classes by leading Sputnik experts, take part in specialized events held by partners, and meet with speakers representing leading sociopolitical and technological trends in Moscow and St. Petersburg.