NI 479 - January, 2015

Democracy in the digital era

A note from the editor

‘We are living in transformative times’

As chair of the International Modern Media Institute, I want to say how pleased we are to partner with the New Internationalist on the Big Story this month to focus on the challenges and opportunities facing democracy in the digital era.

We are living in transformative times and there are amazing citizens’ initiatives occurring all over the world as people are waking up to the idea that they not only can but need to co-create their societies.

The good news is that it has never been easier to do, thanks to new developments in digital technology and the way we now use it to engage and interact. I have one task for you, for us: let’s dream together of how we want the future to be. Some of my favourite tools for achieving that task are to be found in this magazine, along with articles from expert journalists and activists commissioned by IMMI Director Guðjón Idir.

Elsewhere in this month’s New Internationalist you will find stories ignored by the mainstream press in the Unreported Year and the relationship between Augusto Pinochet and Chile’s indie music revival.

Cover illustration by Molly Crabapple.

Birgitta Jónsdóttir for the New Internationalist co-operative.
www.newint.org

The big story

New laws to restrict internet freedom through taxation brought thousands onto the streets of Budapest in late 2014.

Laszlo Balogh / Reuters

NI 479 - January, 2015

Democracy in the digital era

A note from the editor

‘We are living in transformative times’

The big story

Activist and Icelandic Pirate Party MP Birgitta Jónsdóttir on what we can do and the tools we can all use to strengthen democracy and make it real.

Features

Further information, campaign groups and websites.

The internet, laws and conventions, mass surveillance, media freedom and censorship - facts and figures about democracy in the digital era.

Micah L Sifry assesses the political limits of social media.

How the internet got colonized, by Jillian C York.

Dunja Mijatović makes the case for light-touch regulation.

Investigative journalist Nick Davies on the myth of press freedom.

Not necessarily opposed, argues Sunil Abraham.

Privacy International’s Eric King on resisting surveillance.

John Perry Barlow’s visionary 1996 statement.

Stories that didn't make the mainstream media in 2014.

How General Pinochet inadvertently helped create Chile’s thriving music scene. By Anne Hoffman.

Opinion

Mark Engler considers the true extent of US apartheid.

On a flight to Australia, Steve Parry discovers how air travel mirrors life.

Agenda

Photographer Tom Bradley has been documenting the lives of those living with leprosy.

Andalusia Knoll looks at the recent case of the 43 missing students.

A landmark case in Tunisia sees police rapists jailed.

Richard Swift provides a brief profile of Romania's new leader.

Sophie Cousins on Lebanon's decision to send home the children of migrant workers.

Cristiana Moisescu looks at the rise in global 'grey activism'.

Jess Worth joins the Dirty Oil Tour to highlight human rights abuses by mining companies.

One of Istanbul's few remaining green spaces is now at risk, says Nick Ashdown.

Tom Sykes wonders if Omanis may soon have the opportunity for democratization.

Some good news this month.

Regulars

Praise, blame and all points in between? Your feedback published in the January/February 2015 magazine.

Peacekeeping without peacebuilding is doomed to fail, says Ruby Diamonde.

Tourist impressions of the country can be deeply misleading, says Russell White.

Cartoon by Simon Kneebone.

Cartoon by P J Polyp.

Cartoon by Marc Roberts.

'We can change the world, but music can't,' Billy Bragg tells Louise Gray.

Film, Book & Music Reviews

The best films, music and books of the year.

Reviews of I Am Yours and Pelo Malo.

Reviews of Razia Said's Akory and Lucas Santtana's Sobre Notes e Dias.

The Alphabet of Birds by SJ Naudé; The Shifts and the Shocks by Martin Wolf; How To Speak Money by John Lanchester; Don’t Even Think About It by George Marshall.

More Film, Music & Book reviews from the January/February 2015 magazine.

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