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The World Council of Churches (WCC) was honoured as a top non-governmental organization for its work during 2021, receiving a third-place Geneva Engage Award on 1 February for effective and inspiring social media outreach and engagement.

As the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to journalists Maria Ressa and Dmitry Muratov, World Council of Churches (WCC) acting general secretary Rev. Prof. Dr Ioan Sauca congratulated them and expressed solidarity with their ongoing fight for justice and peace.

In a draft “Manifesto for Communication for Social Justice in a Digital Age,” participants at an international symposium on digital justice collectively offer a view of the current global context, a look at issues and challenges, principles to promote socially just communication and a call for a “transformative movement” founded on human rights, human dignity, and democratic principles.

As a symposium on digital justice drew to a close on 15 September, participants  were weighing their vision for the future in a landscape fraught with injustice. Those taking part in the symposium—be they theologians, church leaders, politicians, students, journalists or professional communicators—are all in fact, “digital communicators,” and this broad array of people who care worked to hone their collective thoughts into recommendations they believe can help the world.

Participants at a symposium exploring challenges and opportunities for a more just digital future held a lively discussion on and offline on how the digital era has changed the notion of public space.

While the concept of “public space” has been around since ancient times, the landscape has turned digital, resulting in a confrontation between the so-called “elite” on the one hand and those fighting for a just society on the other.

If digital social justice begins with connectivity, perhaps it ends when that connectivity is usurped by oppressive regimes, extremists, fake news and hate speech. A “press club”-style conversation on 13 September found theologians, politicians, church communicators, activists and journalists from around the world weighing in on the short but exceedingly complex question, “Digital instruments – Blessing or Curse?”

Besides the dangerous monopoly structures in the digital economy, there is a danger for liberty and justice as they are crucial for pluralistic democracies in the digital world, says Dr Heinrich Bedford-Strohm, bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Bavaria. Bedford-Strohm is also chairperson of the council of the Evangelical Church in Germany and was a keynote speaker at the opening of the symposium exploring challenges and opportunities for a more just digital future, in Berlin on 13-15 September, and co-organized by the EKD.

As a teenager growing up in East Germany in the 1980s, Dr Ellen Ueberschär learned of freedom of speech in her church parish and believes that fundamental digital rights will not prevail on their own or through voluntary commitments by corporations.

Media and communicators are invited to an online “press club” event during which they can speak candidly on the theme “Digital instruments – Blessing or Curse?”

A one-of-a-kind international symposium—“Communication for Social Justice in the Digital Age”—will offer a chance to explore new visions for digital justice, public space, and actions that will make a difference.