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Toronto braces for G20 summit as media people pour in

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2010-06-24 14:41

An official with the Media Accreditation Office told Xinhua that there have been nearly 4,000 online media registrations for coverage of the summits, although she believed that "not all of them are going to show up here."

An engineer with the Associated Press, one of the three authorized providers of broadcast signal of the summit, said that the U.S. news agency is providing 26 work spaces to international media organizations, including Japan's NHK and China's Xinhua, CCTV and Phoenix TV.

Reuters has sent in a team of around 60 people from all over the world, in addition to its local bureau people, to report the summit, occupying one of the largest media booths in the IMC with a space of over 100 square meters.

But it is always the important topics world leaders are going to discuss during the summit rather than the host's hospitality that truly appeal to the journalists.

"I'm really concerned about the climate change issue, particularly the aid pledged to developing countries by developed ones," said Talal Al-Haj from the UN bureau of the Dubai-based Middle East News (MEN), who flew in here on Tuesday night from New York heading a four-member reporting team.

Another topic of interest would be the aid to Africa, which is crucial for the attainment of the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), he added.

"While the G8 summit (to be held June 25-26 in Muskoka, north of Toronto) is expected to focus more on security issues, the G20 summit can discuss more economic and aid issues as the finance ministers of all those countries will be here," said the veteran journalist.