Par Mathilde Kpalla, Membre du Comité Executif de la WACC, Région Afrique

Du 02 au 06 aout 2010, s’est tenu à l’hôtel Saint Thomas, à Lomé, au Togo, un séminaire atelier sur les techniques de plaidoyer pour les femmes activistes de paix d’origine africaine dont le thème est : « formation des femmes en plaidoyer pour la prévention et la résolution des conflits et la consolidation de la paix » Cet atelier est organisé par le Programme des Femmes Artisanes de Paix et le Mouvement International pour la Réconciliation (WPP/MIR/IFOR), Bureau Afrique en partenariat avec le Réseau Ouest-africain pour l’Edification de la Paix (WANEP-Togo).

Interfilm North America has launched its new website. The site had been created to build and strengthen a network of communicators who have an interest in contemporary films that explore social justice, human values, and how religion and spirituality are reflected in cinema.

Interfilm is an international network which brings together interested individuals and institutions concerned with film and theology, church and cinema. Interfilm was founded at the initiative of representatives of German, French, Dutch and Swiss Protestant film work in 1955. It is affiliated to the World Council of Churches (WCC), Geneva. Today, it includes Anglican, Orthodox and Jewish experts as well as other Protestant church denominations.

One of Interfilm’s main tasks is to be present at international film festivals with its own jury. For their awards, the juries select films that stand out due to their artistic quality; that reveal human attitudes or expressions of the Gospel or prompt discussion; and which sensitize viewers to spiritual and social questions and values.

At the 41st General Assembly of Interfilm, held 12 June 2010 in Copenhagen, Denmark, Philip Lee, WACC's Deputy Director of Programmes, was elected as one of three Vice-Presidents. He will represent the interests of Interfilm North America on Interfilm's Steering Committee.

Visit the new site here.

Lebanese women’s rights organization, KAFA, together with global aid agency Oxfam Great Britain, have released groundbreaking publications that will play a pivotal role in bringing men across the Arab world into the struggle to end violence against women.

WACC congratulates one of its project partners in Beirut, Lebanon, on the publication of the first ever pan-Arab training guide on practical ways to engage men and boys in the fight to end violence against women throughout the region. Titled Women and Men…Hand in Hand Against Violence,  it was unveiled in Beirut at a high level event hosted by His Excellency the Lebanese Minister of Social Affairs Dr. Salim El-Sayegh, and attended by UNIFEM regional office’s representative Ms. Rania Tarazi and other government ministers, top UN officials and key ambassadors.

New media legislation in Fiji permits government-appointed officials to arbitrarily seize media equipment and documents, force journalists to reveal their sources and fine media organisations up to $100,000 Fiji Dollars (around US $53,000), report the Pacific Islands News Association (PINA), Pacific Freedom Forum (PFF), Reporters Without Borders (RSF) and other IFEX members.

WACC partners in Fiji are reacting with alarm to the Media Industry Development Decree, passed on 28 June 2010, which might force Fiji's oldest and most critical newspaper, Australian-owned The Fiji Times, to close. The decree retroactively applies a rule that 90 percent of a media company must be locally owned and companies have only a three-month period in which to comply.

A documentary from the series “And I Am Not Just A Woman” will be screened at TV festival in Berlin

June 2, 2010: Along with programs from the BBC, ZDF (German national television) and other TV stations from all over Europe, SAT-7’s documentary, “Buthayna”, has been selected for screening at the European Television Festival of Religious Programmes in Berlin 2-6 June.

Operating in a climate permeated by violence and impunity, Mexico City based investigative journalist Laura Castellanos continues to be subjected to acts of intimidation because of her reporting on armed groups and radical movements.

According to ARTICLE 19, which issued an Alert on 26 May 2010, the continued harassment of journalists highlights the urgent need for the Mexican State to implement an emergency mechanism to protect journalists at risk. WACC supports this call for freedom of expression and, in the light of its latest issue of Media Development on 'The Right to Memory', the call to rescind laws that guarantee impunity.