Communication rights are in the DNA of digital justice, gender justice, and climate justice. These global challenges can only be tackled when the right to information and communication underpin decision-making processes founded on human dignity and equality. That is what WACC stands for.

WACC has been a moral beacon in the field of communication justice for more than seven decades. In the 1970s and 1980s WACC promoted the democratisation of communication, helping to combat apartheid in South Africa and to challenge western domination of news and information flows. In the 1990s WACC added its voice to calls for a compassionate response to HIV/AIDS and in the 2000s to the Communication Rights in the Information Society (CRIS) Campaign.

Today, WACC and its partners worldwide are asking urgent ethical questions about the development and deployment of digital technologies and Artificial Intelligence. Disinformation and deep fakes, the increasing digital divide, the exponential growth of private tech companies, and the use of AI in surveillance and military systems call for active, informed, and coordinated advocacy and capacity-building by local, national, and global actors. Decades of work have taught us that there are no easy solutions.

In 2025, along with hundreds of representatives from the Global South, WACC and its partners attended the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS+20) High-Level Event held in Geneva, Switzerland, 7-11 July. We underlined that civil society and especially people of faith have a key role to play in advancing inclusive information societies. Looking back on two decades of advocacy and action aimed at strengthening people-centred media ecosystems, WACC noted that millions of people are still excluded – from digital access and from meaningful participation in policymaking.

Around the world, despite noble efforts such as WSIS+20 and the UN Pact for the Future, civil society is being weakened and fragmented – not only by the collapse of international aid and shrinking funding streams, but also by political manipulation and repression. Digital technologies and digital platforms dominated by the Global North are used to amplify authoritarian voices and to marginalize and silence others, mostly without effective oversight or regulation.

There was, of course, enormous hope that WSIS+20 would formulate bold proposals to counter these trends, to elevate national and community actors, and to increase accessibility, affordability, and accountability. WACC and its partners welcomed such calls. But none of this transformation would be possible without also confronting the colonial, racist, and sexist legacies embedded in the control of information and knowledge, and in the deployment of digital technologies – including Artificial Intelligence.

WACC urges that communication be recognized not merely as a tool for bringing about social progress, but as a right – central to human dignity, agency, and justice. With that in mind, WACC supports calls for:

In 2026 and onwards, WACC will be focusing on strengthening independent media, digital justice, gender justice, and climate justice. We shall be looking at creating greater awareness of the positive and negative aspects of digital technologies, especially those powered by Artificial Intelligence; gender-based violence in the media and media representations of women and girls; and how community networks can better inform and challenge climate-related issues such as adaptation, mitigation, and survival.

We believe that to advance the cause of communication justice worldwide, we must listen to the voices of ordinary people and respond radically to their concerns. If the next 20 years are to deliver on the promise of just and inclusive digital societies, then the right to communication must no longer be an afterthought – it must be foundational.

Philip Lee, WACC General Secretary
Annual Report 2025

Top image: WACC General Secretary Philip Lee (r) shows Doreen Bogdan-Martin, Secretary-General of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), a copy of  Taking a Progressive and Decolonial Approach to Digital Ecosystems, a WACC publication for the WSIS+20 High-Level Event in July 2025. Photo: WCC/Grégoire de Fombelle.