The congress held at Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, was one of the most beautiful congresses in the history of UCIP, the International Catholic Union of the Press.
More than a thousand particpants from all the continents were present at the meetings and almost half were professional journalists. Others included political leaders, diplomats, religious personalities, professors, publishers, and other media men and women.
The event clearly showed that the UCIP congress attracts not only media professionals but also all those who may be interested in the congress theme which, this year, was "Media at the Service of Justice, Peace and Good Governance in a World of Inequalities and Poverty".
The International Media Awards events were one of the important attractions for many journalists, especially from other parts of the world and 26 out of the 43 winners of the awards and honourable mentions, came to the congress, while their colleagues or publishing houses represented those who could not make it.
The Dutch Bishops' Conference offered the prize for the Titus Brandsma Award and SECAM contributed to the UCIP Gold Medal. The Brandsma Award was given to Professor Andres Canizalez and the Gold Medal was conferred to the Burkinabe newspaper, "L'Osservateur Paalga".
For the first time an international Edu-Communication Workshop was organised together with the congress and participants appreciated the organisers for being so open to the new ideas and new realities in the media world today.
The congress gave a most interesting look at African culture as the participants were greeted in traditional style and were taken to the local museum, the village of Ramongo and the city of Koudougou......
The head of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications, Archbishop Celli was at the Congress and on his return gave us his impressions. Listen to this report and the voice of Archbishop Celli......