Category Archives: News

  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 »

By Staff on July 17, 2019   One of 20 public events on Indigenous rights and heritage being hosted across Kathmandu Valley by Radio Newa FM, a community radio station based in Kirtipur, Nepal. Photo: Contributed   Radio Newa FM, a community radio station based in Kirtipur, Nepal, has launched a series of field visits and dialogues on Indigenous heritage and… Read more »

By Staff on July 16, 2019   Volunteers take a snapshot of  how women and men are represented in the day’s news in Bangladesh during the 2015 Global Media Monitoring Project (GMMP). Photo: Contributed The Global Media Monitoring Project (GMMP), scheduled for 2020, is still in need of volunteer national coordinators for several countries in Asia and Eastern Europe. Volunteer coordinating… Read more »

By Philip Lee on July 12, 2019 Youth and climate stand out at UN forum on sustainable development. Pictured here: Youth Strike for Climate Action protest in Bath, United Kingdom on May 24, 2019.​ Photo: Ben Warick-Champion/Shutterstock Nations across the world now have an “unprecedented opportunity to talk to each other and learn from each other”, Inga Rhonda King, President of… Read more »

   The UN High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development is underway at the UN headquarters in New York. Photo: Philip Lee UN meetings are often bureaucratic. This one has a sense of urgency. With its rather dull title, the UN High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development is taking place in New York 9-18 July 2019. Its theme is “Empowering people… Read more »

  Women march together in celebration of International Women’s Day on March 8, 2016,  in Dhawa, a village in the Gorkha District of Nepal. The banner reads, “106th International Women’s Day” and “Implement the Constitution and Guarantee Women’s Rights.” Photo: Paul Jeffrey/ACT Alliance  The growing trend of shrinking civic spaces around the world is likely to end or reverse progress… Read more »

By Staff on July 05, 2019 Olivia Michael, WACC’s new intern, at WACC’s office in Toronto. Photo: Marites Sison Olivia Michael – an incoming third year student this fall at the University of Toronto, where she is pursuing a double major in health studies and sociology –  has joined WACC for a two-month internship. Michael said the fact that WACC has… Read more »