Regional News

Mexico

The London WACC office received a visit from Alex Halkin, director of the Chiapas Media Project. Alex gave a brief introduction to the work of CMP and showed videos clips by indigenous video producers. CMP have presented their work in many festivals around the world and others have been broadcast. The majority of the videos however are made by indigenous communities for indigenous communities. The work of CMP is encompassing campaigns for human rights and environmentalism.

for more info:
http://www.chiapasmediaproject.org
or contact: cmp@chiapasmediaproject.org

United States
"Megaphones and Muffled Voices: What is Full and Fair Media Coverage of Israeli-Palestinian Issues?" will examine how news coverage -- and sometimes lack of news coverage -- of the Israeli-Palestinian issues affects our understanding of this complex topic. The conference will be held in New York City, April 17 and 18, 2002. It will hear from a number of media experts and working journalists who will speak to the issue from a variety of perspectives. Both church and secular journalists are invited. The conference will conclude by developing a "Best Practices for Fair Coverage" for journalists and broadcasters.

We are seeking to invite a diversity of voices to help us understand this issue. We will be looking at it from Christian, Jewish and Muslim perspectives; American, Israeli, and Palestinian perspectives; and academic and journalist perspectives. We want the candid perspectives of all involved and in that process we believe we can shed more light on this critical issue.

Partial List of Confirmed Speakers (More being invited):
•
Alan Abbey, Jerusalem Post
•
Marda Dunsky, Medill School of Journalism, Northwestern University
•
Mitri Rahab, Bethlehem Media Center
•
Haroon Siddiqui, Toronto Star

Cost of the Conference: $50. ($25 per day.) Location: Church Center for the United Nations, 777 U.N. Plaza at 44th St., New York City. Schedule: April 17: Registration, 10 a.m., Conference 11 a.m. - 5 pm (optional evening open discussion); April 18: 8:30 - 11:30.
Sponsored by: North American Regional Association, World Association for Christian Communication; World Association for Christian Communication, London; Communication Commission of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A.

To register, contact: Mel Lehman, "Megaphones and Muffled Voices," 310 Riverside Drive, Suite 511, New York, NY 10025 Phone/fax 212-865-6115 ML9612921@aol.com

The Institute of Communication Research, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign will host a WACC-sponsored workshop on the theme ‘Virtual reality: Digital Utopia or Digital Apocalypse’ in October 2002. The aim of this workshop is to explore the ethical implications of virtual presence as opposed to ‘real presence’ and the many consequences of conflating ‘hyper-reality’ with ‘reality’. The two day event will focus on issues related to ethics, knowledge and community in the context of cyberspace and virtual reality. This workshop is a part of the ‘Encounter’ series of workshops pioneered by WACC. Previous ‘encounters’ took place in Sterling, UK., Cordoba, Argentina., and Brisbane, Australia. The advantages of organising an event on campus in Urbana Champaign include the presence of a leading media ethicist Prof. Clifford Christians, a state of the art virtual reality lab, and one of the top super computing facilities in the USA. WACC Director Studies and Publications, Pradip Thomas, was recently in Urbana-Champaign where he delivered two public lectures ‘On the Nature of Communication Rights in India’ and ‘Information Problems of the Global South’. more: pt@wacc.org.uk

Costa Rica
Peace Studies and Peace Journalism
Radio For Peace International and the International Center for Human Rights in Media present a 10 week study course dealing with social justice, human rights, ethics in journalism, history of racism and xenophobia in media, researching and documenting intolerance in media, radio and news production with elective Spanish language training. Students live with a Costa Rican host family. Four overnight excursions, special activities included. Session start dates for 2002: March 24, June 9, September 1. IPC, SBO 66, PO BOX 025292, Miami, FL 33102 Tel: +506-205-9092, FAX: +506-249-1095. www.rfpi.org/ipc.html

Radio For Peace is a non-profit communications facility, dedicated to broadcasting messages of environmental and social justice. Our programming can be heard 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, on both shortwave radio and via the Internet - at www.rfpi.org. RFPI broadcasts to 120 countries and is able to reach an estimated audience of 800,000.

Kenya
Forum Review is being produced on important health issues including HIV/AIDS. For copies of this important resource please contact:
Communications Officer
CHRISTIAN HEALTH ASSOC.OF KENYA, P.O. Box 30690
Nairobi, KENYA
ebchak@insightkenya.com

Bangladesh
Bangladeshi Journalist Targeted in Bomb Attack
Committee to Protect Journalists - On February 5, explosions from several homemade bombs rocked the area surrounding the Chittagong Press Club, where journalist Shahriar Kabir was attending a reception to celebrate his release on bail. One bystander was killed in the attack, and several others were injured. Kabir was not harmed.
Kabir, a documentary filmmaker, regular contributor to the national Bengali-language daily Janakantha, and author of several books about Bangladesh's war for independence, was arrested on November 22 for "anti-state activities on the basis of intelligence reports and at the instruction of higher authorities," according to a police report. He was released on bail on January 20, 2002.

Egypt
New Media Centre Open in Cairo
January 18-20 was a landmark weekend for Christian television in Egypt. SAT-7 opened their new 13,000 ft_ (1,300 m_) studio and administrative centre in Cairo, in private and public celebrations on 18 and 19 January respectively. The Coptic Orthodox Church also opened their new Coptic Media Centre (CMC) in Shoubra El Kheima on Sunday 20 January. Both centres will be working closely together, sharing resources to produce programs for SAT-7’s daily Arabic satellite television service.

Orthodox, Protestant and Catholic church leaders attended the opening of the SAT-7 studio complex, which is legally under the office of Rev. Dr Safwat el Baiady, the President of the Protestant churches in Egypt.