Journalist, Tutu confidant speaks about human rights and apartheid Oct. 30

Event: John Allen, distinguished South African journalist and Desmond Tutu’s communications director and biographer, will discuss “The Media and Human Rights: The Struggle against Apartheid in South Africa.”

When: 7 p.m., Monday, Oct. 30.

Where: Jesse H. Jones College of Communication, University Auditorium (CMA 2.320). For a map, visit www.utexas.edu.

Background: Allen is a South African journalist who was director of communications of South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Committee and the Trinity Church Wall Street in New York. The former president of the South African Society of Journalists, he has won awards in South Africa for defending press freedom and in the United States for excellence in church journalism.

“John Allen was a participant and observer in two historic events of recent decades—the overthrow of the apartheid regime in South Africa and the creation of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, a major experiment in post-trauma nation-building,” Lester Kurtz, professor of sociology, said. “It is a rare opportunity to hear the insights of someone close to those events and to Desmond Tutu, who directed them.”

This event is sponsored by the Department of Sociology, College of Communication, Students for Nonviolence and the Plan II Honors Society. It is free and open to the public. For more information, visit: www.johnallen.org.za .

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Contact: Lester Kurtz

Professor, Department of Sociology

(512) 232-6316

or

Christian Clarke Casarez

Director of Public Affairs, College of Liberal Arts

(512) 471-4945