Conflicts have been a persistent part of our past. Harmony and Peace is what we hope and must build for the future. Diverse civilizations, representing numerous nations and cultures, living in harmony, is a relatively new concept. It evolved in the modern era, based on the learnings from the experiences of endless wars and the destruction. With the proliferation of deadly nuclear weapons it has become the collective responsibility of nations to devise ways to live in harmony as the very survival of humankind is at stake. It is among the most important tasks that we have at hand.

Much progress was made after the World War II, especially in the creation of the UN, its specialized agencies and promulgation of many farsighted treaties and conventions aimed at promoting peace. However, in the recent past, some of the democratic gains of the post-war period have come under serious strain and newer threats to peace and harmony have emerged.

In the midst of all these concerning developments the need for nations to understand each other better, especially in terms of our respective cultures, is now an urgent task. While in the past we looked at cultural diversity with suspicion, in today's world we embrace it as collective heritage inheritance for all humanity.

So the issue is how to build a harmonious world on the basis of greater knowledge and understanding. Knowledge about culture and cultural heritage provides an important avenue to bring that understanding among peoples. It is historically proven that mutual knowledge leads to mutual respect which leads to elimination of prejudice and hatred. The process of increasing mutual knowledge is most effectively driven by people to people contact. However, given the size of populations in each country, most of whom are unable to travel to other countries, it is left to the mass media to help the process of increasing mutual knowledge of the diverse cultures that make for the collective heritage of humankind. Acquiring this comprehensive knowledge is becoming more and more vital in the present day world.

Media has always been a very important conveyor of culture in all its diversities. With the advent of online platforms and all forms of social media, media's relevance, role and importance has further increased. Today, media, including radio, TV, print and digital platforms, can play a very important and effective role in stopping the incitements to conflict and contestations.

There is no denying the fact that media sometimes depicts cultures of other countries and peoples in a negative light, especially if there is some discord among them. This negative mindset helps to generate an attitude that is more set to find areas of differences rather than those of similarities. Over time this continuous negative portrayal leads to deep-seated hatred and blind prejudice that spreads among the people of the respective cultures. To build a peaceful world the media needs to develop a deeper understanding and respect of the cultural heritage of different peoples of the world. For this to happen we need to cultivate an attitude of inquiry and appreciation.

We should move away from the ideas of "superior" or "inferior" culture. There is really no such thing at least in the modern world. What we have are different cultures with immense diversity which need to be analyzed, deciphered, understood and finally respected. Whatever our historical legacy may be we must understand that we have to live in peace with each other and for that to happen we must understand and respect each other. We must avoid war at any cost. And for that to happen we have to avoid prejudice and hatred that ultimately leads to conflict and even to war. It is my view that independent media has to go much further in changing its present mind-set.

Greater collaboration between the cultural editors of media houses must be encouraged. This will lead to greater information flow between media institutions. If media organizations can bring their multimedia units to team up in production and distribution of cultural productions they can bring about dramatic changes.

Given the tremendous challenges that international cooperation is now facing, global and regional media cooperation in increasing knowledge of each other's cultures can be a great service to creating deeper harmony between different cultural, ethnic and national groups.

Chairman, Asia News Network