Government of South Sudan calls for responsible media fraternity
* Article
* Comments (5)
email Email
print Print
pdfSave
separation
increase
decrease
separation
separation
*
*
*
*
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.
JPEG - 15.2 kb
South Sudanese newspaper going to print (AFP)
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)
--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "JFD
info" group.
To post to this group, send email to [email protected].
To unsubscribe from this group, send email to
[email protected].
For more options, visit this group at
http://groups.google.com/group/jfdinfo?hl=en.
