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Global News |
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Rev. Karin Achtelstetter appointed WACC General Secretary |
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| | The Rev. Karin Achtelstetter is the new General Secretary of WACC. In making the announcement on behalf of the Board, WACC President Dennis Smith said: “Rev. Achtelstetter possesses the managerial skills, knowledge, leadership experience and potential for continued professional growth needed by WACC at this time.” Karin Achtelstetter is well known in global communication circles as the current Director and Editor-in-Chief of the Lutheran World Federation, and as former Coordinator of the Public Information Team & Media Relations Officer of the World Council of Churches, both based in Geneva. Achtelstetter has served on both the WACC Europe and WACC Board of Directions. Read more...
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General Secretary accepts call to serve congregation |
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| | Randy Naylor, General Secretary of WACC, has been appointed minister for Parkwoods United Church, in Toronto, as of 1 October 2010. He will continue with WACC during October, working with the new General Secretay in a period of planned overlap. Upon his appointment, Naylor said “I am absolutely thrilled! Parkwoods has a distinguished record of faithful, inspired leadership and I am honoured to join their journey". Read more...
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Programme updates |
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GMMP 2010 report to be launched in September |
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| | The Global Media Monitoring Project (GMMP) report will be launched in September 2010 accompanied by simultaneous launches of the GMMP national reports in several countries around the world. Monitors in over 100 countries took part in the global research last November. A preliminary report based on a sample 42 countries was presented in New York, March 2010, on the occasion of the 15 year review of the Beijing Platform for Action. (See the report here: http://www.whomakesthenews.org/2010/2010-preliminary-report.html. More details on the launch will be announced soon. |
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Regional News |
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Men must help end violence against women in the Arab world |
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By Philip Lee, WACC Deputy Director of Programs
| | Lebanese women’s rights organization, KAFA, together with global aid agency Oxfam Great Britain, have released groundbreaking publications that will play a pivotal role in bringing men across the Arab world into the struggle to end violence against women. WACC congratulates one of its project partners in Beirut, Lebanon, on the publication of the first ever pan-Arab training guide on practical ways to engage men and boys in the fight to end violence against women throughout the region. Titled Women and Men…Hand in Hand Against Violence, it was unveiled in Beirut at a high level event hosted by His Excellency the Lebanese Minister of Social Affairs Dr. Salim El-Sayegh, and attended by UNIFEM regional office’s representative Ms. Rania Tarazi and other government ministers, top UN officials and key ambassadors. Read more... | |
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New press law gives sweeping powers to military regime |
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By Philip Lee, WACC Deputy Director of Programs 
| | New media legislation in Fiji permits government-appointed officials to arbitrarily seize media equipment and documents, force journalists to reveal their sources and fine media organisations up to $100,000 Fiji Dollars (around US $53,000), report the Pacific Islands News Association (PINA), Pacific Freedom Forum (PFF), Reporters Without Borders (RSF) and other IFEX members. WACC partners in Fiji are reacting with alarm to the Media Industry Development Decree, passed on 28 June 2010, which might force Fiji's oldest and most critical newspaper, Australian-owned The Fiji Times, to close. The decree retroactively applies a rule that 90 percent of a media company must be locally owned and companies have only a three-month period in which to comply. Read more... |
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WACC North America sponsors GMMP Roundtable in New York City |
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By Sheila George, President of WACC North America and Rebekah Chevalier, Vice President
| | To coincide with the release of the final report of the WACC Global Media Monitoring Project (GMMP), WACC North America is sponsoring a roundtable with journalists, journalism school deans and students on September 20, 2010, 6 - 8 p.m. at St. John's University 's Manhattan campus, 101 Murray St. Admission to the roundtable, entitled "Who Makes the News" is free and open to all. Read more...
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WACC member wins international journalism award |
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| | Andrés Cañizalez, a WACC member and former Treasurer of WACC Latin America, has won the Titus Brandsma Award which honours journalists, publishers, professors of communication, publications or institutes who have suffered threats or persecution because of their engagement in the media on behalf of an important human or Christian issue.
The award will be conferred by International Catholic Union of the Press (UCIP) at its World Congress to be held in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, in September 2010. Read more...
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Features |
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Communication rights of people with disabilities |
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By Jennifer Moore  | | Commitment to fair and just representation in the media 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, particularly in the media.
This vision is reiterated in the following article about communication rights of people with disabilities in Bolivia, which refers to some of WACC’s project partners in the country. Read more...
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Communication at the heart of church work and mission |
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By Praxedis Bouwman, WACC Vice- President  | | Communication that is “top down” is best relegated to a museum! There is now an online, mobile global population with access to an enormous and dizzying array of information to read, listen to, view, and interact with. Churches and church organisations can only keep up with this development by seeing communication as central to the organisation as a whole. Communication needs to be approached as a holistic strategy, not scaled down as a “hands-on” service.
I find it puzzling that missiology, study and reflection about mission, is often structured in a holistic fashion, but that if I start speaking about “communication”, people in church structures tend to view it as a second- or third-ranked discipline. How effective could we be if theology, missiology and communication could walk hand in hand and cross-pollinate each other? Read more... |
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Dangers of environmental reporting |
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By Philip Lee, WACC Deputy Director of Programs
| | WACC is one of many NGOs drawing attention to climate justice and the problems surrounding environmental reporting. Now, Reporters Without Borders has released a report confirming a serious increase in attacks on journalists and bloggers trying cover any kind of environmental damage. Those investigating industrial pollution or the destruction of forests are at particular risk. Read more...
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Pictorial news |
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| WACC consultants
WACC has appointed Alfonso Gumucio and Dale Hildebrand as evaluation consultants whose work will be focused on Latin America and Middle East regions. Gumucio, a Bolivian based in Mexico, is a communication specialist with experience working in development programmes in Africa, Asia, South Pacific, Latin America and the Caribbean. Hildebrand is a Canadian based in Toronto who has twenty years of experience in NGO programme design and evaluation, much of it with faith-based organisations. | | | | |
 | | Norwegian Church Aid staff visits WACC
Isaiah Kipyegon Toroitich, the Program Officer for Policy and Advocacy at Norwegian Church Aid in Kenya recently visited WACC while on his KAIROS Cross Canada G20 Climate Justice tour to speak about the disproportionate impact of climate change on Southern countries. For details about the Tour, visit KAIROS Website: http://www.kairoscanada.org/en/ecojustice/climate-change-the-g20/ |
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