Government of South Sudan calls for responsible media fraternity

By Ngor Arol Garang
May 14, 2011 (ABYEI)-The Government of South Sudan (GoSS) on Saturday called for a responsible and professional media fraternity in the region.

The call came in response to increasing pressure on the Ministry of Legal Affairs and Constitutional Development to submit a media law to both the Council of Ministers and South Sudan Legislative Assembly for deliberation and immediate approval.

Jackline Alfred Duku, a journalist with Central Equatoria state in an interview with Sudan Tribune from Juba said,”Although we are guided by ethnics, it is always good to have something we can use as reference. We find it difficult to operate without legal provision. We do not have anything which we can use as legal reference. We have been requesting this from the Government of South Sudan since it came into existence without success. We started demanding tabling and approval of the media law before census and elections were held. We have raised it several times”.

“Some of us, out of patience, have even written to the president demanding approval of the media law without success. Maybe the authorities think the media law is not a priority to be passed. They have been dodging us for six years”, explained Duku.

Mustafa Biong Majak Kuol, director general in the ministry of information, said on Saturday that his ministry was exerting efforts to ensure that a media law is passed, but that it should not be used an excuse not to remain ethical and professional. He said the ministry was “working in collaboration with heads of various media associations”.

“The government respects and promotes press freedom. The government has no intention of controlling the press. The Government of South Sudan has principles which respect press freedom but this must not be misused to unnecessarily report against the government. We need a professional and responsible media to operate in the south”, explained Kuol in an interview with Sudan Tribune on Saturday.  

Alor Majak, a member of executive committee of Abyei Community Development Association, in a separate interview with Sudan Tribune in Abyei town on Saturday said South Sudanese journalists should never give in to the government’s demands for a statutory regulation of the media.

He advised South Sudanese journalists to establish a voluntary media council that could not impose penalties other than naming and shaming journalists involved in unprofessional practises.

Majak, a former journalist trained in Cuba, turned politician, urged journalists to explain to people that the media would serve them better if they had access to government records and that the public needed to realise that freedom of information was not just for journalists, but also for all the public, “because repressive regimes can have difficulty attracting tourists, donors and investment”.

“It’s typical for private news media to accentuate the negative when they are competing for circulation and advertising against subsidized state-owned media that accentuate the positive […] Criticism of public officials’ policies and actions do not constitute personal insults, and freedom of the press includes the freedom to be irresponsible.

“I must acknowledge the job well done by the media of south Sudan during the referendum. The media helped sensitise the general public to turn out in their numbers.”

He further said he was horrified with indications suggesting statutory regulation of the media in South Sudan because in a democracy and democratic republic like South Sudan, the people were supposed to be key.

“Freedom of information would demonstrate that the government is transparent and respectful of citizens’ rights.”

He said the greatest underlying resistance to the release of public records arose from the personal feelings and not the concerns about procedures and policy.

He said, too often, public officials thought of their offices as their private possessions, forgetting that they held the offices in trust for the public.

“And they hold those records in trust for us. Government records are a treasure chest of information and knowledge, waiting to be opened, and the public don’t really know what will be found when the lock is broken,” he said.

(ST)