About us

World Watch Monitor reports the story of Christians around the world under pressure for their faith.

Freedom of belief, guaranteed by the UN Declaration of Human Rights, plays a critical part in the unfolding, complex story of the 21st Century. We exist to tell this part of the story with accuracy and authority. We respect and uphold everyone’s right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; Our focus is on the global Christian Church.   

World Watch Monitor is particularly concerned with reporting on the underlying causes of persecution. We aim to connect the dots to reveal the forces behind acts of violence and injustice.

We strive to be the most trusted and consulted source of news about Christians who suffer for their faith. World Watch Monitor editors commission journalists around the world to report on persecution, from breaking news to in-depth analysis. We seek authentic voices on the ground, always with the aim to place such incidents within a broader narrative to explain context.  We are committed to classic journalistic principles and practices: We pursue truth; employ the discipline of verification; maintain independence; keep the news in perspective; and publish journalism that aims to be transparent.

However, wherever the freedom to believe is denied, there is fear, secrecy and often danger. So, we will name our sources when we can, and will protect them with anonymity when we must. Our reporters, whose work can anger those who oppress minority Christians, often work in places where police protection cannot always be expected, where orthodoxy can be enforced at the end of a gun, and where the rule of law doesn’t always run as it should. For those reasons, in most cases we do not publish the name of a story’s author. But neither do we make up fake reporter names.

We know the story of the Christian Church under pressure is larger than World Watch Monitor’s engagement with it, so we link to credible news and information about persecution that is published by others. Our goal is to be a valuable guide to the full breadth of this important story.

The WWM Team

Julia Bicknell has had over 30 years’ experience in the BBC, mainly BBC World Service and BBC World. She was a correspondent from Pakistan, has lived in Vietnam, and has spent extended time in Africa.

 

 

 

 

Jeff Thomas has spent 26 years in daily newspapers in the U.S., as a reporter, editor and executive editor.

 

 

 


 

Steve Dew-Jones joined the WWM Team as a journalist in 2013. He has written two books – about long overland journeys in Asia and the Americas, respectively – and has worked for a range of newspapers, magazines and websites in London.

 

 

 

 

Lauren Gunias has worked and trained as a journalist in both the United States and United Kingdom. Prior to joining WWM, she worked for the BBC, CNN International and WOUB News.

 

 

 

Using our material

World Watch Monitor news stories, photos and video may be republished in whole, or cited in unedited excerpts, provided that World Watch Monitor is credited as the source. Please do not republish photos or other media that we have credited to a source other than World Watch Monitor. We welcome linking to our site.

About links

Persecution is a story as old and wide as the Church, well beyond the ability of any single news service to report it completely. That's why World Watch Monitor frequently links to information sources around the Web.

We select links to Web pages that contain specific content that we have reviewed and believe to have value to World Watch Monitor readers. Such content may include, but is not limited to:

  • News articles published by other agencies that contain pertinent information not originally reported by World Watch Monitor
  • Reports, white papers, research, proclamations, statutes, and other original-source documents issued by governments, NGOs, advocacy groups, etc.
  • Background information about a person, place or topic

When a World Watch Monitor article makes reference to an organization, a link to that organization's home page may be provided, as a way to make it easier for readers to learn more about that organization.

However, we cannot be responsible for the content of external websites. This is because:

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In some cases, we may link to a website that coincidentally includes advertisements or commercial services, such as online purchases. World Watch Monitor has no connection to those commercial services, and does not necessarily endorse them.

A World Watch Monitor link to an external website should not be understood to be an endorsement of that website, any views expressed on the site, the site's owners, or any products and services displayed on their site.

Catching Our Eye

Islamic State's 'caliphate' shrank 14% in 2015

Islamic State's self-proclaimed 'caliphate' - the area within Syria and Iraq that the group controls - shrunk by more than 12,000 square kilometres in 2015, says military analyst, Jane's.

The loss of 14 per cent of its territory reduces the caliphate to 78,000 square kilometres.

Main losses are large swathes of Syria on its northern border with Turkey, and in Iraq the city of Tikrit, a stretch of the main highway between Raqqa and Mosul and the recent government’s re-capture of Ramadi.

The loss of land in Syria has cut off the group's main access point into Turkey, while the loss of the highway has complicated the transfer of goods and fighters between the two cities.

IS made gains by advancing further into Syria via Palmyra, but these were made at the expense of losing northern Syria to the Kurds, who, Jane's says, are the "biggest winners in 2015, expanding territory under their control by 186 per cent to 15,800 square kilometres". The Kurds are the largest component of the Syrian Democratic Forces being nurtured to form part of the US ground campaign against IS in 2016.

A UN report in September revealed that ISIS is expanding its presence in Afghanistan as it actively recruits followers in nearly three-quarters (25) of the country’s 34 provinces.

2 years’ labour for Kazakh Christian

A Kazakh Christian has been sentenced to two years’ imprisonment at a labour camp, after an initial seven-year sentence of restricted freedom at home went to an appeal.

Yklas Kabduakasov, 54, a Seventh Day Adventist, was convicted of inciting religious hatred while talking to others about his faith. He and his fellow church members denied the offense.

Kabduakasov, who has eight children, was initially convicted on 9 November. The latest court hearing took place on 28 December in the Kazakh capital, Astana.

Meanwhile, a Baptist church in the west of Kazakhstan has come to the end of a three-month ban on its activities, for failing to pay a fine imposed in September to punish it for running a children’s summer camp away from its registered legal address.

The Transfiguration Church, from Darinskoe village near the northern border with Russia, incurred the ban after it failed to raise enough funds to pay the $1,500 fine.
 
Kazakhstan has had particularly restrictive rules on religion since 2011, when, in the aftermath of the Arab Spring, churches were forced to re-register. Hefty fines are given for any religious activity without permission.

Source: Forum 18

Iraqi priest released

An Iraqi priest has been released, two weeks after he was abducted on his way back to his parish in Yacoubieh in Syria’s Idlib province, reports the Franciscan Custody of the Holy Land.

Franciscan friar Dhiya Azziz, 41, apparently disappeared from Lattakia, Syria, on 23 December after visiting his family (refugees in Turkey). Released on 4 January, he is now in Damascus.

No further details were given “due to confidentiality”, but the Custody thanked “all those who helped us to liberate him”.

ACN reports that Fr. Azziz suffered “extreme cold” in captivity and was in a state of “severe exhaustion” upon his release.

Fellow Franciscans told ACN they were “giving thanks to God” that he was freed.

Fr. Azziz has been kidnapped by jihadists once before, in July 2015, when he was also released after a few days.

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