Public Channel

Following a protest meeting yesterday at the ICA conference, a number of ICA members drew up the following declaration, for ICA members and attendees of the conference to sign in their individual capacity.  A Committee on Public Statements was recently formed by ICA to consider formal requests for official statements. This declaration does not preclude members from making further, formal requests to that committee.

See the link to the Cape Town declaration here.

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Herman Wasserman
Professor of Journalism
Stellenbosch University
Stellenbosch
South Africa
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I know that the business-as-usual vibe at ICA annual conferences has been deeply painful for many members, including me. No better place than South Africa for a reset.

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Cherian George
Hong Kong Baptist University-School of Communication
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As a scholar who grew up during apartheid and then had to negotiate access to racist universities that were slow to transform, I support this statement. Large institutions like ICA should take their cue from 'post'-apartheid South Africa and exercise moral courage to make social justice a reality. South Africa's transition may be imperfect, but it is making a concerted effort to address racialised and gendered inequalities. If ICA is serious about engaging inequalities and decolonial approaches to media, communication and cultural studies, then it should support the call by these scholars.

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Adam Haupt
Professor
Film & Media Studies, University of Cape Town
Rondebosch
South Africa
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Colleagues,

The statement does not ask for anything radical; rather, it calls for the minimum of what we should do as researchers, university professors, and knowledge producers. Our work is a public duty.

When ICA was vocal (rightly) in support of Ukrainian rights in the face of Russian aggression, it said nothing meaningful about Palestinians-including journalists, scholars, students, and universities-who have been subjected to destruction under the ongoing Israeli genocide. This remains the case more than three years after the beginning of the genocide.

Meanwhile, many academic organizations around the world, as well as media and communication scholars' networks such as ECREA, have issued statements and adopted positions similar to those outlined in the first and second demands of this declaration.

For reference, ECREA's statement can be found here: https://ecrea2026brno.eu/registration/

Burçe Çelik

Professor of Politics and History of Communications

Loughborough University, London

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Burce Celik
Loughborough University
London
United Kingdom
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