Features
Cell Phones: Tools for Social Justice |
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There are no translations available.
By Marilyn Mahan
| | Many of us carry cell phones, some for everyday use and others in case of an emergency. We might run out of gas or forget the grocery list. In Haiti, Frances Gilles used his cell to tell his family exactly where he was trapped. Dan Woolley had a first-aid application on his phone. He used it to treat his wounds until rescuers arrived. Another person trapped in the rubble was rescued thanks to a text message. Experts determined his location by tracing the source of the message.
What a tragedy it would have been had these callers received busy signals. However, immediate response by several NGOs (non-governmental organizations) reduced that likelihood. Within an hour of the quake, the International Telecommunication Union had arranged to have additional satellite channels allocated to Haiti.
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Features
Special Rapporteurs Define Ten Key Challenges to Freedom of Expression in the Next Decade |
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There are no translations available.
| | To mark their tenth year of collaboration, the four rapporteurs on free expression issued a joint declaration last week outlining the ten main challenges to free expression in the next decade. WACC supports the initiative which was organised by ARTICLE 19 and the Centre for Law and Democracy.
The statement emphasises the critical role of freedom of expression, including diversity and pluralism, as an "essential tool" to defend other rights and "as a core element of democracy." It also acknowledges the tremendous power of the Internet as a mechanism for "realising the right to freedom of expression and information." |
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Features
Community radio stations obliterated, off the air in Haiti |
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There are no translations available.
By Jean Roland Chery/CPJ Haiti consultant
Source: Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ)
| | More than two weeks after earthquake that devastated Haiti, several community radio stations are still off the air. In the western and southeastern parts of the country, at least 16 stations are facing serious problems that have suspended their broadcasts, Sony Esteus, executive director of SAKS, a local organization of community radio stations, told CPJ. The earthquake obliterated SAKS’ office in the Bourdon neighborhood, east of Port-au-Prince.
| Women sell fruit in Jacmel, where Radio Fondwa was completely destroyed along with much of the city’s downtown. (AP)
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Features
HAITI: Sending Hope over the Airwaves |
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There are no translations available.
By Ansel Herz, IPS (Interpress Service) 
| | PORT-AU-PRINCE, Jan 25, 2010 (IPS) - Throughout the earthquake's aftermath, the voices of many Port-Au-Prince radio stations have been loud and clear.
Radio Solidarite 88.5 FM is one of the outlets to survive the tremors. It resumed broadcasts from its small studio, at the top of a two-storey building in the city's centre, once the staff found some gas for their generator just two days after the quake.
| | The radio hooked up outside the reporter's moto driver's house.(Credit:Ansel Herz/IPS) | | |
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Features
Multimedia Reporting on Haiti |
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There are no translations available.
By Amy Webb, IJNet Digital Media Consultant
Published by IJNet, 20/January/2010
| | In the aftermath of the recent earthquake tragedy in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, media organizations all over the world are taking different digital approaches to covering the story. Various technologies and tools are being used to measure the tragedy and to tell the harrowing stories of its countless victims.
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Features
Twitter and Facebook users respond to Haiti crisis |
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There are no translations available.
A BBC Report
| | An appeal to help victims of the Haiti earthquake is breaking all records, fuelled by the power of social media.
Type "Haiti" into Twitter, Facebook or Youtube and you soon encounter a message from @redcross sent at 05:38 GMT on Jan 13.
In less than 48 hours, the American Red Cross had received more than $35m in donations - including $8m directly from texts. |
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Features
Environmental journalists censored and assaulted |
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There are no translations available.
| | Violence against journalists contravenes human rights and the right to freedom of expression. The current global focus on climate change talks should not be allowed to mask attacks on journalists covering such issues as illegal logging, mining, and environmental pollution. WACC joins Reporters Sans Frontières and Article 19 in condemning such violations and urges governments to take appropriate action. The following report was issued by the two organizations. |
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Features
Disability in the media: A communication rights issue |
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There are no translations available.
By María Teresa Aveggio, Programme Manager, WACC
| | Commitment to fair and just representation for all sectors of society has long been part of WACC’s communication vision. As such WACC has supported a number of practical initiatives aimed at changing the way disability is portrayed.
In 1998 the quarterly journal Media Development (2/1998) brought together a number of articles on the many and varied issues related to communications and disabilities – questions of representation, of employment in the media industries, the need for universal design and for recognition and acceptance of difference, not sameness as a central, universal norm. |
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Features
What will religious communicators do to help the world’s people? |
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Écrit par Philip Lee, Deputy Director of Programmes, WACC
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Vendredi, 16 Octobre 2009 09:28 |
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There are no translations available.
| On October 14, 2009 the Canadian 2010 Interfaith Partnership issued the statement "A Time for Inspired Leadership and Action".
The Statement calls on the 2010 Religious Leaders' Summit (June 21-23, Winnipeg, Canada), preceding the G8 (G20) Summit (June 25-27, Huntsville, Canada), "to put first the needs and values of the majority of the world's population, of future generations and of Earth itself." (See here.)
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Features
Is Peace Front-Page-Worthy? |
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There are no translations available.
Report on the WACC-North American Peace Monitoring Project, 2008
Executive Summary by Birgitta Schroeder
| | In September 2008, over one hundred ecumenical volunteers from across the U.S.A. participated in an ‘action-oriented’ media study, undertaken by WACC-North America. As part of WACC’s mission to actively promote communication for social change, this project is part of its world-wide campaign “Communication is Peace – Cultures for Peace” – working towards creating ‘cultures of peace’ on a local and international level. This seeks to empower local ecumenical peace activists, produce research findings and raise awareness on ‘news values’ and the quality and framing of mainstream news outlets with respect to violent conflicts and its resolution.
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Features
Good governance and media: A development partnership? |
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There are no translations available.
By María Teresa Aveggio, Programme Manager, WACC
 | | WACC, as an advocate of people-centered democratic development, has long called for communication to be a key component of every development plan. The fabric of all societies, modern and ancient is woven from continuous and complex communication processes and exchanges between individuals, people, all kinds of groups and institutions, nations, etc. Equally WACC has advocated for democratization of the media, of pluralistic and inclusive media as a contributor to good and democratic governance.
Good governance – that is the capability of the state to perform its key functions in response to its citizens’ aspirations and needs and accountable to them for what it does – are central to establishing sustainable development. Good governance has increasingly been one of the key priorities of the international donor community and policy makes alike, of development experts and civil society.
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Features
Reduce Gender Inequalities – Reduce Poverty |
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There are no translations available.
By María Teresa Aveggio, Programme Manager Communication and Poverty
 | | It is estimated that women represent 70% of the world’s poor, a figure that indicates that women bear a disproportionate burden of the world’s poverty. Census figures from 2000 indicated that in Canada women had a poverty rate almost 20% higher than men, earned on average 80% of their salary and experienced higher levels of unemployment.
Statistics consistently show that women are more likely than men to be poor and at risk of hunger because of the systematic discrimination they face in education, health care, employment and control of assets. The implications of poverty for women are wide ranging and millions of women are frequently left without even basic rights such as access to clean drinking water, sanitation, medical care and decent employment. Being poor also mean that women have very little protection from violence and that they have no role in decision-making.
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Features
Is poverty a resource? |
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There are no translations available.
By María Teresa Aveggio, Programme Manager, WACC
 | | Photojournalists and documentary makers regularly confront ethical issues of an extreme kind. But as Neri Grazia reminds us in ‘Ethics and Photography’, "The camera is a different tool from a pen. It can be used to produce an instantaneous masterpiece, to upset society with a scoop, to amaze people with something new." While photographing or filming identifiable victims of conflict or disaster, for example, journalists may have to consider whether they would wish themselves or their families to be shown in such circumstances. | | Photo source: Panos Pictures | | |
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Features
WACC outraged by suppression of freedom of expression in Fiji |
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There are no translations available.
 | | WACC is outraged by the continued suppression of freedom of expression by Fiji’s military government.
On July 23, a court order attempted to stop two top Methodist Church ministers and a paramount chief from holding the church's annual conference planned to take place in late August. They were charged with defying the Public Emergency Regulation over the church's conference. | | Photo source: Matangi Island Resort Map | | |
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Features
Forest rights row exposes cracks in UN climate plans |
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Mercredi, 24 Juin 2009 09:38 |
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There are no translations available.
 | WACC is encouraging communicators to report climate justice issues from the perspective of the global South. The following feature, written by Hilary Chiew and published by the PANOS Institute on 27 May 2009, is a good example of giving a voice to those most vulnerable to climate change.
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