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1. Secretary’s Report – AR
WACC
Assembly 2005 Seoul Korea
Communication is the basic right of every
being. God communicates and so we
communicate. Our effort to promote
Christian Communication in Asia is part and
parcel of Lord’s Call for his mission and
ministry in the Church and elsewhere.
With new technologies, methods and ways
we need to communicate God’s words and
share it with all. Our communication aims
at holistic mission and ministry and shares
the concern for development, awareness
and wholeness of every being.

2. Association of
Christian
Communicators
in South Asia
ACCSA on Roads
- to bring Christian communicators, media
scholars, theologians and Christian Media
practitioners together into a network
-to share their resources at the South Asian
level
- to publish a directory of Christian
communicators and Christian media
practitioners

3. Formation of ACCSA in
Kuala Lumpur 2002
ACCSA in India 2003

4. Online Forum
- To bring many active Christian communicators
together and to provide them a ‘meeting place’
- To enable them to continue their discussion even
after Triennial Assembly
A Project of 2004 was born with the theme on
“Love Message for Reconciliation” in Pakistan
(Centcom folder - No 7.2.16).

5. HOME PAGE
ABOUT US
ACTIVITIES
RESOURCES
LINKS
OnlineForum
2003
OnlineForum
1999
WACC Sites:
WACC London
Pacific Region
North America
Caribbean
Region
Latin America
Asia Region
World
Association
for
Christian
Communicatio
n
Online Forum of AR-WACC Triennial Assembly
Archive of Online Forum 2002
Archive of Online Forum 2003
Background:
One year after 11 September disaster in New York City, the recent bomb blast in the world-renowned Indonesian resort Bali, in southern Philippines and religious violence in Pa
family safety and on concern for world peace.
Asia Region-WACC has scheduled to hold its Triennial Assembly in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia from 12-15 November, 2002. The theme of the Assembly and the seminar is "Rec
chosen in the context of the Asia Region!
Objectives:
This online forum, like the one we had for the last Assembly in Hong Kong in 1999, is set up to provide the participants, and members of WACC in Asia who for some reason ca
homepage www.arwacc.org and through the email Listserve.
We hope the results of the discussion could be brought to the actual Assembly itself and to form part of the discussion in the Pre-Assembly seminar.
Duration of the Online Forum:
To begin on 25 October, 2002 and to end on December 31, 2002.
How It Operates:
You will be invited to join the Online Forum discussion by our server host ChurchNet in South Korea, who hosts the AR-WACC Homepage. Your email address given in the As
point. That means your email address is registered with the Listserve system through which you will receive (and can send from your registered email box) the email messages o
Alternatively, you can also see the messages in the archive section in the AR-WACC homepage. You can post your message to the forum as well via the homepage.
The online discussion is a moderated forum. Mr. David Lin, Regional Coordinator for Asia and Pacific, volunteers to moderate the online discussion. His contact email is <DL@
fails or does not work properly, you are welcome to use FAX too.)
The following questions are designed to start the ball rolling. If you could answer the six questions below, post them to the forum, and participate in the discussion, you will help
solidarity to one another.
Question 1: Identify conflict resolution and media
Could you identify a case in your own country that used/uses media in conflict resolution, and describe the strength and weakness of the case? Please brief us what the conflict is
CopyLefted by AR-WACC
Contact Us: arwacc@arwacc.org
http://www.arwacc.org/

6. Programs of AR WACC:
Communication in Theological Education
Information Society and Alternative Media
Perception of the ‘Other’ in the Media

7. Information Society and Alternative Media
Under the programme of ‘Information Society and
Alternative media’ three workshops (Bangalore, Tokyo
and Chiangmai) were held in Asia Region on this theme
(2002). While the mainstream media are biased towards
certain people and communities the consultation
focused on identifying the ways in which ICT can
enhance the existing alternative means and forms of
communication.
The third year project will focus on bringing the NGOs
together who are working in this field and on training
those who seek to use ICT as an alternative medium for
development. The third year programs will be held in
Srilanka (September 2003), Indonesia (October 2003)
and Thailand (November 2003).

8. ICT Training for NGOs in
Indonesia
• Gains and benefits to
church/organizations/community, resulting
from the project:
• There would be a network to share reliable
information and convey the truth.
• By providing the reliable information, it
causes the public feel peace and secure.
• The institutions, which delegated their
staffs, would have skilled personnel who
are already Internet literate. Therefore,
they would be able to participate in
worldwide communication.

10. ICT Training for NGOs in
Bangladesh
 The result of implementing the
training course is e.g. participants
became aware of the new ideas of
information communication
technology and media and its
necessity for sustainable
development. All the participants
convinced about the importance of
building alternative communities
using ICT and networking.

11.  The total number of participants are 35 and the
training was given in the afternoon with a few case
studies in the morning sessions. On the first day the
inaugural session of the training course was attended by
Sayed Marghub Morshed, Chairman of Bangladesh
Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) as
Chief Guest while David Lin from WACC was
attended as special guest. Reza Selim, Secretary of
WSIS- Bangladesh, Tarequl Kader Mirza, Executive
Director of BICSPR, Ahmed Swapan, Executive
Director, VOICE, AHM Bazlur Rahman, Chief
Executive Officer, BNNRC and others spoke on the
occasions.

14. Media, Religion and
Representation of the ‘other’
Media present stereotypical images of particular
religious groups. Particularly the minority religions
are often misrepresented and portrayed without any
credible information about them. This could lead to
mass ignorance about other religious communities
and so often end up in conflicts. The mission of
Christian communication in such context is to
bridge communities by promoting awareness about
the media’s presentation among different religious
communities.

15. Nepal Programme on
“Stereotypical Images of Other
Faith in the Media” Kathmandu,
14th April to 17th April 2004
• The panel representatives were Rev Boaz from
Pakistan, Fr Dr Michael Ipgrave from Britain, Fr Dr
Sebastian from Bangalore, Rev Cyril Cornelius
from North India, Mr Krishna from South India.
• In order to bring about reconciliation between faith
communities, there is a need to remove such
ignorance which is often created by the media and
to establish an understanding through other types
and means of communication.

17. • Orientation –
• The portrayal of religious minorities in the
mainstream media is biased and hence we face a
stereotypical image of the minorities. As a result, the
minorities are misunderstood and misrepresented to
the point of being detrimental to communal harmony,
national unity and international understanding. The
mainstream media carries the stories of the minorities
according to its vested interests and political gains.
The media, at times, manipulates facts and figures
about the minorities. Religious minorities need to
strengthen cooperation and coordination when it
comes to correcting the misrepresentation of the
minorities in the media.

19. • The outcome of the consultation shall be
brought in the form of a book, under the title,
“Representation of Minorities in Media”, for the
benefit of the larger audience.
• An e-forum shall be formed to engage the
participants on discussions and sharing of
views on media issues. Any interested person
shall be included in the forum.
• Workshops shall be conducted for Christian
media practitioners and scholars on issues of
misrepresentation of the minorities in the
media.

21. • .
-to enable the ‘future leaders’ of the church to
be aware of the role of communication and
media in their mission and ministry;
- to engage critically and constructively in the
emerging culture of media technology;
-to reflect upon the values of the media in the
light of the Kingdom values and
-to incorporate communication methods in the
ministerial formation and
-to relate theological methods to communicative
praxis.
Communication in Theological Education

22. The first year program was conducted in East
Malaysia in January 2002. Association of
Theological Education in Southeast Asia
(ATESEA) jointly organized the program
with the help of Sabah Theological Seminary,
East Malaysia
The second year programme will be held in
Bangkok, Thailand. The successful
experiences from India and Philippines will
be taken as models to follow for other
countries and can shared among other
seminaries.

23.  a two year project in which the first
year program will focus on
conducting an objective study of the
representation of the media by
expertise and share it with Christian
communicators, Churches and
media practitioners. The program will be
held at Nepal in the beginning of the next
year (2004).

24. Programs in Asia Region
• Pathways to Critical Media Education and Beyond
• Refugees and Their Right to Communicate – A
Conference in Bangalore, India
• The Impact of Cybernetics on Life: Political
Economy and Ethics of Convergent Technologies
– In Jirisan, Korea

25. •
Pathways to Critical Media Education and Beyond
WACC in association with SIGNIS Asia, Asian Communication
Network, Philippine Association for Media Education, and Jesuits
Engaged in Social Communications in East Asia and in Oceania and also
with the Philippine-China Development Resource Center
- to begin a process of “paradigm shift” from media education to media
reform;
- to identify and examine concrete strategies, issues and policies through
case studies in order to systematically reform the media environment in
the direction of greater democratization,
- to come up with a collective document on encouraging media reform
movement though definite intuition building and to work out a common
project proposal for a three-year development media reform activity
across Asia.

26. Refugees and Their Right to Communicate – A
Conference in Bangalore, India
WACC in Association with United
Theological College, Bangalore
An e-group is being set up among these NGOs
under the title of “Asiarefugeeconcerns”
(http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Asia-Refugee-
concerns/). To join the group one needs to send an
email to Asia-Refugee-concerns-
subscribe@yahoogroups.com.

27. The Impact of Cybernetics
on Life: Political Economy
and Ethics of Convergent
Technologies – In Jirisan,
Korea
The World Association for Christian Communication
(WACC) organized a Workshop in Jirisan for three days
(20th to 25th June 2003) with the help of the Advanced
Institute for the Study of Life (AISL) on ‘The Impact of
Cybernetics on Lire: Political Economy and Ethics of
Convergent Technologies’

28. - that the global studies programme convene a task
force to accompany the follow-up to this workshop
and the future study process; the task force should
include representatives from the WCC, WARC, LWF,
AISL and other ecumenical partners.
- that in recognition of the global importance of these
issues a workshop on Science, IT and Faith be held in
Africa.
that material from this workshop and bible studies
relevant to the theme be made available for the use of
by the wider public.

29. Future Directions and strategies
for AR WACC
• Disaster Information Management –
networking community media and Early
warning systems
• Establishing Dialogic Communication at
grassroots
• Promoting Communication studies in
theological College
• Cooperation and collaboration with other
Christian organisations.

30. Best Wishes to the new AR WACC
EXCOM Team
• Fulfilling the Mission and Ministry of
WACC
• Raising funds locally
• Working and learning together
• Thank you very much for cooperation,
encouragement and support
• God bless you
• Rev Dr Joshva Raja, UTC, Bangalore