The South African Civil Society Information Service
A nonprofit news agency promoting social justice. Seeking answers to the question:
How do we make democracy work for the poor?
A nonprofit news agency promoting social justice. Seeking answers to the question:
How do we make democracy work for the poor?
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Al Jazeera’s Fault Lines travels to Venezuela on the trail of evidence to support claims from opposition protestors that they are being repressed by a brutal dictatorship, but finds a far more complex situation unfolding in the country. Opposition to the Venezuelan government comes from elite groups who are frustrated with the socialist policies of the state. Meanwhile, large numbers of poor Venezuelans whose lives improved dramatically under the late Hugo Chavez’s government,...
How do you pick up a malicious online virus, the kind of malware that snoops on your data and taps your bank account? Often, it's through simple things you do each day without thinking twice. You'd be surprised how much personal information you're giving away simply by using your cell phone to pick up a Wi-Fi network whilst you're out and about. James Lyne reminds us that it's not only the NSA that's watching us, but ever-more-sophisticated cybercriminals, who exploit both weak code and...
Forty-year-old journalist Jim Foley was beheaded in Syria by the extremist group, the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS). The video of his killing has been linked on every major news site in the world. Jessica Desvarieux is a correspondent for the Real News Network ans also a friend and former colleague of Foley. In a moving tribute Desvarieux talks about Foley’s passion for his work and the reasons that drove to him to cover the conflict in Syria. Desvarieux also remembers Foley...
In the wake of the shooting of Michael Brown, the unarmed black teenager in Ferguson, Missouri, whose killing is making global headlines, John Oliver explores the racial inequality in treatment by police as well as the increasing militarization of America’s local police forces.
Most shocking is the discovery that the city of Ferguson has just three African-American police officers in a town whose population is two-thirds (63%) black. Ferguson is a case of racial profiling gone out...
The people over at TED seem to have had a change of heart and allowed billionaire Nick Hanauer back onto their stage. Back in 2012, TED notoriously censored a talk Hanauer gave on income inequality because it challenged some still enduring, but flawed assumptions about who the real job creators are. A self-described plutocrat and unapologetic capitalist, Hanauer is paradoxically calling for changes that challenge the status quo. “No free and open society can long sustain this kind of...
In late July 2014 SACSIS hosted a reflection workshop for our team of writers. Prof. Steven Friedman, Director of the Centre for the Study of Democracy at the University of Johannesburg, was asked to initiate the discussion with a lecture on the question: "What is the role of the social justice commentator in public interest journalism?"
Friedman framed his address around the question, "How do ideas change society?"
His key argument was that change is a complex and...
