South Sudan Media: An endangered landscape

[Elisabeth Janaina]

South Sudan Media: An endangered landscape

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By Tor Madira Machier

With the disappearance of some websites from South Sudan’s radars on
Monday, the news exaggerates fears of government’s advance on media
strongholds in the country. What is so sad regarding this government
crackdown is that, although there is limited internet access in the
country, most South Sudanese citizens (both in IDPs UN-manned camps
and in their homes) do not have the capacity to spend a daily amount
of 150 South Sudanese pounds on News Papers circulated daily in Juba.
Instead, they resort to collecting information about the country from
online news outlets with the use of the country’s limited internet.
Now, with government’s crackdown on online news outlets like Radio
Tamazuj, Sudan Tribune, Nyamilepedia and the PaanLuel Wel, South
Sudanese are going, without doubts, to face hindrances to access
information.

Although there are some online news outlets, Sudan Tribune, Radio
Tamazuj, and Nyamilepedia are the most visited South Sudanese news
sites both at home and abroad according to some reports. With the
shutdown, few, especially those who will be able to buy newspapers,
would have access to what is going on around them, but with limited
information, because most papers in Juba and other parts of South
Sudan are government monitored and have to report what favour the
government.

The government’s anti-press activities are not surprising both to the
South Sudanese and to the press. With the onset of the South Sudanese
civil war in December 2013, most journalists are continuously
harassed, expelled from the country, detained, or even killed by the
government’s unknown gunmen. In early this year, South Sudan’s media
authority whose members are appointed by the South Sudanese president
issued an order banning the Qatari based Aljazeera Network’s Bureau in
Juba from reporting, or covering any issue related to South Sudan. The
ban followed an Aljazeera report on an escalating fighting between
government and opposition forces in Kajo-Kaji county of Central
Equatoria State on which the network reported the government facing
setbacks in a number of battles in the area. This explains that the
government favours a friendly media, in which what please it is
reported. But where there is no truth, there is no development. The
government must realise mistakes it committed yesterday so as to take
care of what it is doing tomorrow.

Although the government might see this as a war between it and the
media, of course, it is a war between the government and the people of
South Sudan. With the closure, the messenger will not do his job and
the South Sudanese citizen will not have access to the relevant
information he deserves to know about the situation of his country on
daily basis.

If the government in Juba believe that the ban affects those with a
positive view of the South Sudan opposition and negative view of the
South Sudanese government, then the government is wrong. Without
exceptions, the negative effect of the move includes people with a
positive view of the South Sudan’s government.

The journalists, I believe, won’t surrender and the government is
ready to fight an indefinite war. That’s why one would ask himself a
question such as; why the government mind is opening several war
fronts with the armed opposition, the South Sudan citizens, the South
Sudanese and the international media?

The government of South Sudan should free the media landscape and
leave it alone.

Tor Madira Machier is a South Sudanese columnist living in Cairo,
Egypt he can be reached via tormad...@gmail.com or
tormchier.bogspot.com