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?
Bobby Peek director of Durban based environmental justice NGO, Groundwork, argued that the climate change debate is an energy debate and that the poor do not have access to energy.
He also said that the South African government's claim that the Kusile and Medupi coal-fired power stations would produce jobs has not materialized.
Peek made these remarks at a roundtable discussion, which sought to ascertain how the South African media is reporting on climate change in the run up to...
Prof. Herman Wasserman, Deputy Head of Rhodes University's School of Journalism and Media Studies argued that the South African media's coverage of climate change is not quite commensurate with the scale and impact of the crisis.
He highlighted three weaknesses in the media's reporting on climate change:
1) The frequency of the coverage.
2) The prominence of the coverage.
3) The tone of the coverage.
Prof. Wasserman highlighted these issues at a roundtable discussion,...
SACSIS -
In Spring 2010, The South African Civil Society information Service (SACSIS) co-hosted a roundtable discussion with the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (FES) South Africa Office. The meeting sought to get a better understanding of how the South African media reports on the economy.
One of the key reasons behind hosting the event was that as a country and indeed as the world, we live in precarious times.
Given the financial crisis of 2008 and the global recession that followed, 30 million...
Alide Dasnois, Editor of the Cape Times, said that the South African economy was not on the right growth path when she spoke at a roundtable discussion co-hosted by SACSIS and the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung South Africa Office. She also highlighted the problem of ideology that does sometimes creep into reporting, despite editors' best efforts to clean it out.
Dasnois talked about the importance of encouraging debate in newspapers. To this end, the Cape Times launched a series called...
Mondli Makhanya, the Editor in Chief of Avusa Media and Chairman of SANEF, argues that contrary to the commonly held view that the media is selective about the voices it amplifies, the media provides a great platform for a broad range of views on the economy.
While Makhanya argued that the media offered a space for people with various viewpoints, he contended that the left was not proactive enough about getting its views into newspapers.
He also said that advertisers held no sway...
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...
