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South Africa: Pornography and the internet - justifiable protection or entrenching patriarchy?

Sally-Jean Shackleton
Sally-Jean Shackleton on 6 July, 2010 · Southern Africa
0 comments | 5545 reads
Sally-Jean Shackleton previously worked with Women'sNet and is currently a consultant doing work related to women's voice and representation with a number of organisations. She is keenly interested in how ICTs shape women's activism and how women's activism shapes ICTs.
GenderIT.org

A draft Bill proposing a ban on sexual content on the interneti and cellphones submitted to the South African Department of Home Affairs in May 2010 claims to have the best interests of women and children in mind. The Bill was submitted to the Department, which oversees the Film and Publications Board, by a non-profit organisation called Justice Alliance of South Africa (JASA).

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South Africa: Privacy and domestic violence online and off

Esther Nasikye, co-authored by Sally-Jean Shackleton
Esther Nasikye, co-authored by Sally-Jean Shackleton on 30 June, 2010 · Southern Africa
2 comments | 6449 reads
Esther Nasikye is a trained citizen journalist and founder of ChangeWaves, a civil society organization in Uganda that was established to support organizations, women, men and young people to access and share knowledge through ICTs for the sustainable development. Sally-Jean Shackleton previously worked with Women'sNet and is currently a consultant doing work related to women's voice and representation with a number of organisations.
GenderIT.org

While women's rightsi activists have been at the forefront of making the private crimes that occur at home - domestic violence, marital rape - public, new technologies are making the private public in ways that disenfranchise, alienate and violate women. Esther Nasikye and Sally-Jean Shackleton explore how ICTis, privacyi and domestic violence in South Africa are showing up problems in both policyi and practice.

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GCIS - Government Communication and Information System (GSIS)

Website: http://www.gcis.gov.za/
The Governmenti Communication and Information System (GCIS), was established in terms of Section 7 of the Public Service Act, 1994 and was officially launched on 18 May 1998.GCIS's vision is helping to meet the communication and information needs of government and the people, to ensure a better life for all.GCIS's mission is to provide leadership in government communication and to ensure that the public is informed of government's implementation of its mandate.
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Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA)

Website: http://www.icasa.org.za
On 1 July 2000, The Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA) and the South African Telecommunicationsi Regulatory Authority (SATRA) merged to form the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA). The core responsibility of ICASA is to regulate broadcasting and telecommunications in the public interest.
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Universal Service Agency

Website: http://www.usa.org.za/
USA is a statutory body established in 1997, in terms of the Telecommunication Act with the responsibility for ensuring universal accessi to telecommunication services. Universal access is initially defined as a telephone within a reasonable distance, but a more realistic goal is to provide telecommunicationsi where everyone in the country can have access within 30 minutes' travelling. USA was also tasked with monitoring Universal Servicei Obligation of the three network operators; managing the Universal Service Fund; managing the roll-out of telecentres on a national scale.
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Negotiating transgender identities on a South African web site

Jeanne Prinsloo
Jeanne Prinsloo on 23 March, 2010 · Southern Africa
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Jeanne Prinsloo, the APC's EroTICsi project partner in South Africa, looks at the use of the interneti by South African transgender people, and examines the internet's role in the process of transitioning from one gender identity to another. She concludes that the internet provides a critical space for trans people to access support, to rehearse their new identity, to hear marginalised narratives and to assess the risks they might take. Jeanne argues that calls for content regulationi should not result in censorship and surveillancei practices that would curtail the trans people's freedom of expressioni and their internet use.

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South Africa: Violence against Women and ICT

Shereen Essof
Shereen Essof on 4 November, 2009 · Africa
0 comments | 2427 reads

southafrica, cge, policy, ict, privacy, security, “freedom of expression”, surveillance, “commission on gender equality”, vaw, icts, civil society, government, apcwnsp, mdg3
Two key debates are examined in the paper by Shereen Essof: censorship versus freedom of expressioni and privacyi versus surveillancei. She looks at the practices of VAW in a country with the world's highest reported rate of femicide and where there is little understanding of the strategic usei of ICTs to support combating VAW as well as recognizing new avenues for perpetrating violence against womeni.
 
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