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?
Dr. Essop Pahad, former minister in the South African presidency and Editor of The Thinker, a political journal argues that the media could be on the side for progressive change. He contends that the media can take a position linked to an ideological viewpoint.
Pahad challenged Mondli Makhanya's assertion that the media is not influenced by advertisers.
Pahad made these remarks at a roundtable discussion co-hosted by SACSIS and the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung South Africa Office.
The...
SACSIS columnist, Liepollo Pheko contends that there absolutely nothing wrong with having a subjective opinion of social justice.
Pheko also challenged editor Mondli Makhanya's assertion that the media accommodates a wide range of views. She argued that it is incredibly difficult to get alternative views into the media.
"It's incredibly difficult to get 'different' articles into the media…this whole notion that you are welcome, just send us an email, just pop your article...
SACSIS columnist, Ebrahim-Khalil Hassen, argues that progressive activists should be given a fair chance to get their views into newspapers.
Hassen provides an example of how newspapers ignore civil society's views. Civil society raised concerns about aluminium smelters and their burden on South Africa's (SA's) electricity supply as far back as the year 2000, but they were ignored by the media. More recently, however, when the CEO of a bank said that the way to solve SA's electricity crisis...
Nic Dawes, Editor in Chief of the Mail & Guardian newspaper speaking about how the media reports on the economy in South Africa. Dawes delivered this presentation at a roundtable discussion co-hosted by SACSIS and the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung South Africa Office (FES).
Dawes started of by saying that the media is not very good at covering the economy. He conceded that there are indeed deficiencies in how the media treats issues that relate to the lives of the poor and the policies...
Fazila Farouk, Executive Director of the South African Civil Society Information Service talks about how the media has polarised the debate on the economy between the left and the right in her opening remarks at a roundtable discussion, which sought to probe how the South African media reports on the economy.
The event, held in mid September was co-hosted by SACSIS, and the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung South Africa Office.
Farouk explained that SACSIS is a social justice news agency...
Jospeh Stiglitz argues that there are a large number of ways in which a focus on GDP is not a good measure of economic performance and societal wellbeing. GDP doesn't tell you about what happens to the typical citizen and this is a problem when you have growing inequality in societies where most people, not just the poor, are becoming worse off. There are many alternative measures that we could be focusing on such as a focus on green GDP that takes into account of environmental degradation...
