Fourteen universities in 7 countries held "no travel" events during the week of the main IAMCR 2021 conference. At these events, groups of colleagues met to watch one or more IAMCR 2021 video sessions, presented papers included in the conference OCP programme, invited guest speakers, and engaged in group discussions.

The Participatory Communication Research Section regularly issues newsletters with information of interest to its members. The August issue invites the section members to keep digging into IAMCR 2021 and its contents which remain accessible until September.

IAMCR is saddened by the news of the death of Yassen Zassoursky, President of the Faculty of Journalism, Lomonosov Moscow State University, who died on 1 August 2021 at the age of 91. He was a leading figure in media and journalism studies and education in the Soviet Union and the Russian Federation, and served many years as vice-president of IAMCR.

On 3 July, the Gender and Communication Section sponsored the online symposium "Being Marginal- Performing Raced and Gendered Labour", organised by Dr. Maha Bashri of United Arab Emirates University and Dr. Shobha Avadhani of National University of Singapore.

The Visual Culture Working Group is pleased to announce the launch of VIC Dossier Cultural & Technological Images, featuring texts by authors from ten different countries who discuss contemporary aspects that deal with images in their cultural environments and/or in their technological productions.

IAMCR calls on the Nigerian government to drop proposed restrictive legislation regulating the media and to lift its suspension of Twitter.