Community Media: A Good Practice Handbook

Among its activities to mark World Radio Day 2012, UNESCO has launched a new good practice handbook with case studies of community media from around the  world. The publication draws on a diversity of experiences to provide inspiration and support for those engaged in community media practice and advocacy and to raise awareness and understanding of community media among policy makers and other stakeholders.

Community Media: A Good Practice Handbook is a compilation of 30 community radio and other community media examples demonstrating  successful approaches to strengthening public voice.

 "The value of this publication lies in the fact that it highlights problems while at the same time offering possible solutions. It presents a useful empirical basis for replicating time-tested decisions about how community media can become an even more effective element of a free, independent and pluralistic media system of any democratic society. This book will be a useful reference to community media practitioners, policy-makers, researchers, community organizers, and other media development stakeholders." From the Foreword by Wijayananda Jayaweera, former Director, Communication Development Division/IPDC, UNESCO, Paris

Compiled and edited by Steve Buckley. 

Published by UNESCO and available free online at:

http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0021/002150/215097E.pdf

PLURAL+ 2012 Youth Video Festival on Migration and Social Inclusion

The United Nations Alliance of Civilizations ( UNAOC) and the International Organization for Migration ( IOM) again invite the world’s youth to submit original and creative videos focusing on PLURAL+ themes: migration, diversity and social inclusion. 

Recognizing youth as powerful agents of social change in a world often characterized by intolerance, and cultural and religious divisions, PLURAL+ invites youth to address key challenges in their communities related to migrant integration, inclusiveness, identity, diversity, human rights and social cohesiveness, both at local and global levels. Young people up to 25 years old are invited to submit short videos of five minutes maximum in length.

Marc Scheuer, Director of the UNAOC, said “PLURAL+ videos fit very well in this very relevant conversation: how to build more inclusive societies where we can all live together in harmony.” Michele Klein-Solomon, Permanent Observer to the United Nations, IOM, added “PLURAL+ videos touch very sensitive issues in a very real way. They look at the realities that people are facing; we like to see young people expressing their profound ideas in a manner that allows the opening of a dialogue.” 


A prestigious international jury will select three winners in each age categories (9-12, 13-17, 18-25). All the winners will be invited to New York, all travel expenses paid, to present their work at PLURAL + 2012 Awards Ceremony at the Paley Center for Media on 6th December 2012. 

PLURAL+ partner organizations will also award other prizes and professional opportunities, such as winning participants presenting their work at film and video festivals, conferences and events around the world.

PLURAL + 2012 deadline for video submission is 1 July, 2012. Early submissions are encouraged.  Further information, including guidelines, regulations, awards, and the entry form can be found at the PLURAL+ website at: http://pluralplus.unaoc.org

Pakistan Catholic Church protests against destruction of its property

The Catholic Church in Pakistan has issued the following press release to protest against the illegal destruction of its property in the Punjab.  Further information here

Press Release

Destruction of Church Property by the Punjab Government in Lahore

The Catholic Church is again shocked to experience the illegal capture and destruction of its property by the Government of the Punjab, Pakistan. This property is more than 18 Sq. Kanals worth Hundreds of Millions of Rupees and is situated at main Allama Iqbal Road.

The Catholic Church used to run a Sewing Centre that used to provide sewing skills for the girls of the adjoining areas. Three Catholic families were residing in that campus. Earlier, even the Sisters of Charity of Jesus & Mary and Franciscan Tertiary Sisters of Lahore used to reside there. This property was registered in the name of Lahore Charitable Association and was being taken care by the Caritas Pakistan Lahore.

Not only the Catholics or other Christians but even the Muslims of the surrounding areas know that this property belonged the church.

In the present days, Fr. Emmanuel Yousaf Mani (Director of National Catholic Justice & Peace Commission, Pakistan) was dealing the court cases in this regard.

The Government of the Punjab, Pakistan launched this illegal action on the 10^th January 2012. They even did not allow the residents to take their belonging out of their rooms. Normally governments provide safety to the people especially the minorities in every country. Ours is the different case. The rule in our country is “Might is Right”.

We are astonished to note that the Pakistani media in general has not given proper reporting of this illegal action by the Government of the Punjab, Pakistan against the minorities. They are supposed to safe guard the lives, rights, respect and the properties but they themselves are Grambling and using illegal means against the minorities. We strongly condemn their lawless action.

The Catholic Church in Pakistan makes a special appeal to the Chief Justice of Pakistan to intervene and give us our property back.

The Church has given a call for the peaceful protest and prayer to take place on 16^th January 2012 at 12:00 noon. We make an appeal to the international media to highlight our cause of struggle and give coverage to our protests to get back our property.

Fr. Nadeem John Shakir

Executive Secretary,

National Catholic Commission of Social Communications Pakistan,

Lahore, Pakistan.

 

Holy See joins International Organization for Migration

UK Ambassador to the Holy See, Nigel Baker,  comments on his blog:

Good news this week as the Holy See on 5 December joined the Geneva-based International Organization for Migration (IOM).

Why is this important? The Holy See’s “Ambassador” (Permanent Observer) to the UN in Geneva, Archbishop Silvano Tomasi, summed it up well in an interview he gave to Vatican Radio: “as we are witnessing a continuous increase in the number of migrants and refugees in the world, it is important for us to be present and to participate in the efforts of the international community with the specific contribution of the Holy See: an ethical voice which gives a fresh interpretation to these new situations. [..] What must prevail is not so much politics, as the need to meet the human needs of these people, as they migrate through the various regions of the world”.

As I noted a couple of weeks ago, the growing menace of people trafficking, coupled with increasing migration flows especially towards the developed world, requires a bold, international response. The issue is a priority for the British Government, and increasingly so for the Holy See. We welcome Archbishop Tomasi’s statement that the Holy See will focus on “the defence of human beings and their dignity”. And we look forward to working with them here in Rome and in the IOM.

Human Rights under threat in Indonesian Papua

Geneva (Agenzia Fides) –Indonesian Papua is experiencing "serious abuses of civil and political rights as well as economic, social and cultural", while the mass media are gagged to hide the truth: so says the new Report "Human Rights in Papua 2010/2011" launched in Geneva by three non-governmental organizations", Franciscans International "(FI) - NGO of the Franciscan Family -"Faith-Based Network on West Papua "(FBN) and "Asian Human Rights Commission" (AHRC).

Social Media in the Service of Children

Eliza Villarino reports on how UNICEF is using social media to help children:

In Mozambique, a 16-year-old girl got pregnant by her teacher. Her school suspended her but did not take any action against the teacher.

UNICEF published the story of Linda (not her real name), as well as what it’s doing to help prevent similar cases of sexual abuse against minors in Mozambique, on its website Oct. 19. If you’re one of the U.N. agency’s 1.2+ million fans on Facebook or its 600,000+ followers on Twitter, you would have received a notification about the article on your Facebook newsfeed or Twitter timeline.

“I hope we will be successful and save all the children from bad people,” says one comment on UNICEF’s Facebook wall post.

But of course, for UNICEF, an organization recognized for its serious pursuit of innovation, there’s more to social media than just disseminating information about its programs. It has, in fact, incorporated social media use in some programs such as Connecting Classrooms and Voices of Youth.

UNICEF is also working on a new communication and public advocacy strategy that, according to Gerrit Beger, will embrace social and civic media as a core element. He also said the organization’s social media guidelines will be released soon.

Source: Devex

Al Jazeera English Gives Voice To African Journalists

 

Al Jazeera English is putting the spotlight on Africa’s journalists in “Africa Investigates.” The new series is intending on providing African journalists a megaphone from which to report their stories on corruption, abuse, and exploitation to the masses. The journalists who worked on the reports for the series worked undercover, using hidden cameras, and, of course, put themselves at risk in order to reveal the truth behind frauds, conspiracies, abuse of minorities, child trafficking, and high-level corruption. The series will consist of eight one hour episodes and began Wednesday, November 2 on Al Jazeera English.

Series producer Diarmuid Jeffreys said that investigative journalism in Africa is often stuffed down because of the political figures who can suppress reports. “All too often in the past, African reporters have not been able to pursue wrongdoing because it involves powerful figures who wield undue influence over local media – financial, corporate or political – or because it is simply too dangerous,” Jeffreys said. “Investigative journalism is a perilous profession in many African nations, where intimidation, beatings, imprisonment and death threats can be an occupational hazard. As a result they have often had to sit idly-by while Africa’s story has been told by Western correspondents, ‘parachuted in’ for the purpose, who reinforce stereotypical views about African peoples and their supposed inability to face up to and solve their own problems.”

Read more:  Shockya.com