Final Declaration 6th Latin American Congress of Communication July 13-14, 2022

https://signisalc.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/DECLARACION-FINAL-COMLAC-2022.pdf

Final statement

VI Latin American and Caribbean Congress of Communication

Communicators and communicators from various countries of America and the world, gathered during July 13 and 14, 2022, at the VI COMLAC, in Panama City, we reflected on the theme "Intercultural communication and spirituality for social transformation"

. Challenged by the post-pandemic reality, which aggravated the special conditions of the peoples of Latin America and the Caribbean, and committed to the search for communication that generates hope, we declare:

The Communication Congress was a space that allowed us to meet again after two years of isolation, to "listen, exchange and question each other to learn in a fruitful dialogue" about the reality of the region. We note that, after the pandemic, there are still elements of separation and selfishness in society, this urges us to be better people and professionals, with the purpose of promoting "the sense of community and care for the common home", especially attending to the needs of the weakest, of those who suffer violence and live excluded.

We value the process of "listening" to which this Congress invited us, we have been able to share different spiritual, cultural, social and communication approaches, as a basis for understanding each other, since it is an opportunity to feel and understand the demands and cries of those who have been denied or excluded from the possibility of expressing themselves. We recognize young people as the managers of the social transformation that the world, the Church and communication require, and together with them we commit ourselves to respond to the challenge of making a "mess" and promote the necessary and urgent changes from our communication mission. , with a Christian and humanist perspective.

We denounce that the hegemonic media make invisible the convulsive reality in our region, which commits us to listen to the reality of our peoples "with the ears of the heart", to make it visible. We are committed to promoting a journalism that transforms and fosters creativity, trust and hope, in an increasingly dangerous context for communication professionals in our region; For this reason, we urge the governments of the region to investigate and prosecute those responsible for these crimes and prevent them from going unpunished.

We must rethink communication as a science of relationships, open, inclusive and equitable, where the context prevails over the text and thus favors the establishment of respectful, sincere and fruitful relationships. In the digital age, we make a call to recover the human and community and go out to meet the other, beyond their condition and their reality. We must relearn how to look to feel and communicate, from an ethical dimension and empathic attitude, which moves us not only to put ourselves in the other's place, but to "feel with the other" and challenge us to build another possible communication.

We propose to consolidate training processes for communicators and educommunicators from a critical, participatory and socially committed perspective with the changes that our peoples require, which allow us to provide a service to society, with special attention to the excluded, marginalized and in a situation of poverty, to pass from “being” to “we are”. Finally, those of us who attended this meeting are grateful for the welcome and fraternal hospitality that the community of Santa María La Antigua University and -in general- the Panamanian people have given everyone an experience of unity.

Panama City, July 14, 2022