02 Jun 2020 ‘An end to violence can never be achieved by further violence’
WACC condemns the callous brutality that caused the death of George Floyd and led to the growing waves of civil unrest in the USA. WACC is dismayed by the disproportionate...
01 Jun 2020 Advocating freedom from fear
At a time when the world is rightly focused on the coronavirus pandemic and its long-term consequences, under-reported news includes how far down the road we are (or not) toward...
26 May 2020 The essential role of public service media during Covid-19
International public service media from G-7 countries have reported “strong audience increases” since the Covid-19 pandemic, which they interpret as a show of confidence for the “reliable and independent information” they deliver on multiple communication platforms, in a variety of languages, on all continents.
25 May 2020 Journalists are key workers in a chaotic world
It’s a familiar story. Toe the government line – any government – and survive. Criticize the government, or its cronies, or policies that benefit the few rather than the majority, and risk censure or worse. Investigative journalism examines questions of public interest: crime and corruption, certainly, but also deceit and failure. Fair and balanced coverage of issues that impact ordinary people distinguishes good journalism from bad journalism, genuine news from fake news.
20 May 2020 Indigenous knowledge critical to addressing climate change
Indigenous peoples are “not mere victims of climate change,” asserts researcher and conservation biologist Gleb Raygorodetsky in Why traditional knowledge holds the key to climate change, one of the articles in the latest issue of Media Development, WACC Global’s international quarterly journal. The issue explores the theme, Traditional Knowledge and Climate Change: Bridging the Gap.
19 May 2020 Publication explores ‘Spirit of Truth in a Digital Age’
What does it mean to be human in the digital age? What do advances in communication technology mean for communication rights and other human rights? “Do we live in a ‘post‐truth’ era?”
18 May 2020 Migrant voices in the time of Covid-19
With the onset of the current pandemic, things are bound to get a lot more challenging for many migrants and refugees, as well as for the societies that host them.
The number of forcibly displaced people worldwide was already the highest it had been in decades even before the global coronavirus crisis. In 2016, about 40 million people became internally displaced persons (IDPs) and 22.5 million, refugees.
Most migrants are extremely vulnerable both to the health and socio-economic effects of COVID-19. They are constantly on the move, work in the service economy, and have limited access to public services. Women migrants are particularly affected.
We have read stories of hundreds of Venezuelan migrants violating the government-imposed quarantine in Colombia by trying to return to Venezuela at all costs, where they hope to at least they access the country’s precarious health system and look after their families.
Most had been working in Colombia’s informal economy and, after the lockdown, were unable to earn a living.
17 May 2020 Media Development 2020-2 online magazine and pdf
[caption id="attachment_23088" align="alignleft" width="190"] MD 2020/2[/caption] Media Development 2020-2 Traditional Knowledge and Climate Change: Bridging the Gap Traditional knowledge held by Indigenous Peoples may provide essential responses to the current climate crisis. It is...
17 May 2020 MD 2020-2 Editorial
By Philip Lee Many believe that an essential element of ways of responding to the current climate crisis lies in the traditional knowledge held by Indigenous Peoples. The way they think about life and death, natural resources, and the intimate and intricate relationship they have with land, ought to offer pertinent answers to pressing questions of mitigation, adaptation, and survival.