Global internet freedom has declined for the 11th consecutive year, according to the latest report from Freedom House. “Freedom on the Internet 2021” focuses on surveillance, censorship, privacy legislation, and encryption. The report notes that “unequal access to the internet entrenches societal inequity” and calls for...
WACC announces its support for a project in Georgia that aims to empower disadvantaged youth from 25 secondary schools and universities by helping them acquire and develop digital skills that will increase their capacity to address social challenges faced by their communities. The Digital Solutions for...
FRENCH SPANISH GERMAN “Digital technologies are transforming our world and the multiple spaces in which we live and move,” the manifesto begins. “These technologies offer us new ways to communicate, to advocate for our human rights and dignity, and for our voices to...
As a symposium on digital justice drew to a close on 15 September, participants weighed their vision for the future in a landscape fraught with injustice. FRENCH SPANISH GERMAN The symposium’s collective input is being compiled into a “Manifesto on Communication for...
On the last day of the international symposium, Communication for Social Justice in a Digital Age, WACC General Secretary Philip Lee pointed to “signs of hope,” including agreement about the need for a framework that “enables, empowers and transforms, sidesteps power structures and socio-cultural traditions...
WACC members and partners are calling for a movement to “reclaim democratic public communication spaces” in both the analogue and digital spheres, which would strengthen marginalized voices, guarantee the right of citizens to own and control their data, information, and knowledge, and uphold social justice,...
If digital social justice begins with connectivity, perhaps it ends when that connectivity is usurped by oppressive regimes, extremists, fake news and hate speech. A “press club”-style conversation on 13 September found theologians, politicians, church communicators, activists and journalists from around the world weighing in on...
Presentation by Hon. Emma Theofelus, Deputy Minister of Information and Communication Technology, Namibia, at the international symposium on Social Justice in a Digital Age held in Berlin, Germany. Photo: Albin Hillert/WCC FRENCH SPANISH GERMAN Emma Theofelus, deputy minister of Information and Communication...
Heinrich Bedford-Strohm, Bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Bavaria, on September 13 urged Christians around the world to reflect on digitization and its spiritual, ethical, and political implications and to “do it ecumenically,” not only because of its huge impact on people’s lives, but...
Saying that it is not only social coherence but “human dignity itself” that is at stake, Dr. Ellen Ueberschär, President of the Heinrich Böll Foundation, urged civil society organizations, faith-based communities, and NGOs to “take up the fight for freedom and dignity” in both digital and...