Eleanor Roosevelt
Defending human rights has become even more urgent than it was when Eleanor Roosevelt led the fledgling United Nations to adopt the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. (File Photo)
Opinion
Recent events have demonstrated that communication rights are vital to people’s lives, livelihoods, identity and community. Covid-19 affected everyone, revealing both the positive and negative impact of mass and social media. Similarly, the savage attack by Russia’s government on the people of Ukraine underlined the value of independent journalism and once again the positive and negative potential of digital communication platforms. Many lessons have still to be learned.
At the beginning of this year, the World Association of Christian Communicators launched its new Strategic Plan, which pledges to expand public communication spaces, support public interest and community media, and promote media freedoms, digital rights, linguistic diversity, and local sustainability.
Last September, WACC joined forces with the World Council of Churches and others to organize a symposium on “Communication for Social Justice in a Digital Age”. It called for a movement to reclaim democratic public communication spaces, and to advocate the right of people everywhere to accessible and affordable digital platforms with fair and transparent regulation.
WACC is currently designing an extensive program on gender and media that will not only strengthen the Global Media Monitoring Project (GMMP), but also build greater awareness, advocate gender equality and empowerment in and through media and communication, and promote gender sensitive media and communication as an essential driver of gender equality and empowerment of all women and girls.
WACC’s quarterly journal covers these issues and many more. Three recent issues might be of particular interest.
* Democratizing the Public Sphere (3/2021) asks how to bring about an equitable, accessible, and balanced communication sphere, underpinned by principles of human rights and social justice.
* Communicating Climate Change (4/2021) explores how public interest journalism can contribute to greater understanding of the complexities and challenges of the climate crisis.
* Building Credibility and Trust in a Digital Age (1/2022) asks what do social justice and social injustice look like in the digital era, especially for marginalized people and communities.
We are greatly looking forward to continuing all our important work, which can only be done with your dedication and support. On behalf of WACC’s directors, staff, and many allies, I sincerely thank you.
Philip Lee serves as General Secretary of the World Association of Christian Communcators. This article is republished from a WACC newsletter.