By Staff on August 21, 2019 The purchase of additional radio repeaters has helped Radio Bue Xhidza reach an additional 10 Zapotec communities in Oaxaca. Photo: Courtesy of Radio Bue Xhidza A project that included the purchase of additional radio repeaters, the installation of solar panels, and training for reporters has made Radio Bue Xhidza in Oaxaca, Mexico, a “stronger station”… Read more »

Attacks by Boko Haram and military operations have displaced 2.4 million across northeastern Nigeria, Cameroon’s Far North, southeast Niger, and Western Chad. Media needs to do a better job in reporting about them, says a media monitoring project, which also notes that women are rarely quoted in stories about Internally Displaced Persons and refugees. Photo: Espen Røst / Bistandsaktuelt Nigerian… Read more »

By Staff on August 16, 2019 Migrants from Guatemala sleep in the main square of Tapachula, Chiapas, after crossing through southern Mexico, where they hope to join other Central American migrants bound for the U.S.  Responding to pressures from the Trump administration, Mexico has deployed thousands of troops to stop migrants, who say they are fleeing violence and poverty. Photo: Sean… Read more »

By Staff on August 14, 2019 A radio presenter in the cabin of the Lutheran radio station in La Paz, Bolivia. The penetration of media and telecommunications is relatively low in Bolivia. Only 75.5% of Bolivian households have radio, 66.5% have television, 60% have telephone (mostly cellular). Internet access is the lowest in the region — 9.6% of households. Read an… Read more »

By Staff on August 12, 2019  Egzina Sanon (L) and Dashline Exuma do their homework on the porch of their family’s home in Ganthier, Haiti. Mission Sociale des Eglises Hatiennes, a member of ACT Alliance, helped their family and other residents rebuild their homes after their village was devastated by Hurricane Matthew in 2016. Photo: Paul Jeffrey/ACT Alliance. International Youth Day,… Read more »

By Staff on August 07, 2019    An Indigenous Quechua boy from Cusco, Peru.Quecha is the Indigenous language of the Inca empire and is spoken by 4 million people in the country. Photo: Ben Ostrow/Unsplash On International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples, WACC is drawing attention to the urgent need to promote Indigenous languages at both national and international levels…. Read more »

  In Canada, a growing number of people are learning an Aboriginal language as a second language, according to Statistics Canada. However, the number of people with First Nations language as their  mother tongue is declining, since most of them are ages 65 and over.  Overall, only 16% of Canada’s 1.5 million Indigenous people are able to conduct a conversation… Read more »

By Staff on July 30, 2019 [embedded content] The Global Media Monitoring Project (GMMP), WACC’s flagship initiative since 1995, will receive the Donald H. McGannon Award at the United Church of Christ’s 37th annual Everett C. Parker Ethics in Telecommunications Lecture and Awards Breakfast October 17, in Washington, D.C. The GMMP is being recognized for its “special contributions to advancing the… Read more »

By Staff on July 26, 2019   Photo: Malcolm Lightbody/Unsplash A survey conducted by UNESCO has found that 125 of the UN’s 193 member states have enacted right to information laws or similar provisions. However, more needs to be done to implement these laws and to make them effective, UNESCO said in its report, Powering Sustainable Development with Access to Information:… Read more »

By Staff on July 19, 2019  Young Indigenous  Colombians practice what they learned from a media production and communication rights training organized by WACC partner Tayrona Estereo. Photo: Contributed Fifty young Kankuamos, Wiwas, Koguis, and Arthuacos recently took part in a media production and communication rights training organized by Tayrona Estereo, an Indigenous community radio station in Colombia. Tayrona Estereo was… Read more »