By Ekabe Claudia Etiendem, Communication Department, Presbyterian Church in Cameroon

Communication, like peace, has an important role in our lives. For peace to reign in our society, for any developmental activity to succeed, there must be effective communication.This is true if we consider the Babel incident where the sons of Noah failed to build a tower just because they could no longer communicate with each other.

Communication is vital to life. It is impossible for an individual to live in peace without communicating. Communication is equally important to organizations. This includes communication within the organization as well as the organization’s public relations with society.

Suddenly the fingers of a man’s hand emerged and began writing on the wall of the king’s palace and the king saw the back of the hand that did the writing (Daniel 5:5)

By Julius Nyamkimah Fondong, a Civil Affairs officer with the United Nations Mission in Haiti

Haiti is a country in perpetual conflict, often characterized by senseless blood letting. The latest spat of violence broke out in 2003 and culminated in the resignation of the country’s president Jean Bertrand Aristide in February 2004. A United Nations Peace-keeping Mission was immediately set up in the country and entrusted with the responsibility of facilitating a process of peace and reconciliation.

By Pradip Thomas, School of Journalism & Communication, University of Queensland, Australia.

Will the extension of communication rights bring about peace? Before I move on to answering that question, it is important to define what peace is. In common parlance peace is a state of affairs characterized by the complete or relative absence of conflict and violence at different levels – within the family, the neighbourhood, between communities, between countries. In this way of thinking structural peace be it at home or between countries is a necessary pre-condition for physical and mental peace, the basis for ordinary people to exist and co-exist, to live life. Peace in other words has both macro and micro dimensions. However, while overt violence remains the cause of the majority of human suffering, there is also the slow and unexamined play of violence at the heart of poverty that is rarely if ever represented as violence. This violence impacts negatively on the quality of life and on the ability of communities to exist inter-subjectively. One contemporary example of this violence is what the media have described as the global food crisis – the increasing costs and scarcity of essentials such as grain and its implications for human survival.

By Kristine Greenaway, Programme Manager, WACC Congress 2008

Toronto, 21 March (WACC)

- The minister had never heard the term “human trafficking” but he knew something was happening in his community on the border with Nepal in northeast India.“On Fridays, Nepali girls are coming to the bazaar then we never see them again,” he told Pradipta Singh, an official with the Church of North India.It was then the minister learned that those young women are being “trafficked” into the sex trade or into slave labour in New Delhi, Mumbai and other Indian cities.

By Stephen G Brown, (ENI)

Paralimni, Cyprus, 4 April 2008

The opening of a street crossing point in Nicosia, the divided capital of Cyprus, is a symbolic measure that could build trust between Greek and Turkish Cypriots, a meetingof European Christian journalists and communicators has heard.

"Now is the time for everyone to ensure that the breakdown of the 'wall' in the shopping centre of Nicosia will really be the first and right step towards peace," said Cyprus-born Salpy Eskidjian Weiderud, a policy advisor on peace and security issues at the meeting in Cyprus.

She was addressing members of the World Association for ChristianCommunication on 3 April, the day that Ledra Street in Nicosia was opened for the first time in decades.

Cyprus has been split into a Turkish Cypriot north and a Greek Cypriot south since 1974, when Turkey invaded the island, following a short-lived coup by Greek Cypriot supporters of a union with Greece. The division between the two parts runs through Nicosia.

Book Review: Love to Share: Intellectual Property Rights, Copyright, and Christian Churches,
Co-published by WACC and WCC

By Rev Judy Chan Regional Vice-Chair, WACC-Asia region

At first glance, one might wonder why Churches would be concerned about legal matters such as intellectual property rights and copyright issues. As it turns out, Churches regularly have to deal with these matters, particularly concerning music and liturgy for worship. How can Christians be fair to the creator of these works, while at the same time promote a generous spirit of sharing? Love to Share is a response from the World Association for Christian Communication and the World Council of Churches.

The book seeks to broaden the discussion on intellectual property (IP) and copyright from a strictly legal perspective to a more theological and ethical stance. They do recognize the importance of complying with IP laws. However, they also believe that Churches can offer alternatives to the present system to reflect a more just distribution of the blessings of our creative powers.

By Kristine Greenaway, WACC

Toronto, 21 March (WACC) - Media ministries are aggravating tensions between Hindus and Christians in the Indian state of Orissa says an Indian communications specialist.

“Missionaries from South India are involved in ‘spiritual warfare’ using the media and Christian networks,” says Professor Pradip Thomas of the School of Journalism and Communication at the University of Queensland, Australia.

Published by the Church of North India

Seven churches, Catholic, Protestant, Pentecostal, and Independent were burned in Barakhamba village, Kandhamal district, central Orissa. December 23, 2007: Hindutva (Hindu supremacist ideology) affiliated Adivasi (tribal) organizations organized a march, rallying, “Stop Christianity; Kill Christians”.A Dalit (formerly "untouchable" groups) Christian leader testified, “We went to the local police and informed them of the situation. They assured us that things would be under control. On December 24, we heard voices of Bajrang Dal, Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), Shiv Sena people, chanting, 'Hindu, Hindu, Bhai, Bhai'; 'RSS Zindabad'; 'Lakshmanananda Zindabad.' They shut down shops. That night they felled trees to block roads, severed power and phone lines.

BRUSSELS (AP)

Leading female power-brokers from around the world appealed Thursday, March 6, for a larger political role for women in solving conflicts and poverty.

( Ecumenical News International).

Church leaders and journalists often have little idea of the pressures that each other face, according to German Lutheran Bishop Margot Kässmann, who has pleaded with the media and the Church to show mutual respect. .

"The fact that a newspaper needs a short sentence, or that radio stations have only a few minutes in which to report, often does not fit in with how we talk in church. A sermon lasts at least 15 minutes, and a theological lecture at least 45," the Lutheran bishop said in a 15 February speech to journalists at the Protestant Media Academy in Berlin.