“Le Courrier du Vietnam”, a weekly magazine published by the Vietnam News Agency, was invited to represent Francophone media in the Asian-Pacific region at an international Francophone journalism forum in Montreal, Canada .

Launched on October 8, the forum provides Vietnam ’s only French language magazine the chance to share its experience in developing a popular publication in a country where French is hardly used today, and to report on the Vietnam News Agency’s efforts to use IT to reinvent itself in order to become a modern multimedia agency.

The forum, inspired by the International Organisation of La Francophonie (OIF), brought together more than 50 participants, including managers of radio and television broadcasting organisations, journalists, media experts and academics from French-speaking countries.

Speaking at the event, Canadian Minister of International Development and Minister for La Francophonie, Christian Paradis, said Francophone media outlets should take full advantage of the progress made in the field of information technology in a bid to adapt to reader’s habits.

During the three-day forum, delegates will evaluate the current status of journalism in the French-speaking world, examine the effects of technology on transmitting information, and predict multimedia trends with a view to helping the Francophone journalism community adapt to the new media landscape.

The ideas raised during the forum will be used to draft a strategic development plan for the media sector in the next decade.

The event ends on October 10.-VNA