Media Urged To Play Positive Role In Nation Building

This article was last updated on May 25, 2022

Canada: Oye! Times readers Get FREE $30 to spend on Amazon, Walmart…
USA: Oye! Times readers Get FREE $30 to spend on Amazon, Walmart…

Hassan was addressing a group of media officers at the state Ministry of Information in Wau said that the “media is the fourth level of government of which if they perform well, they will play a positive role in the national building inform of peace awareness.”

 “You cannot preserve to serve two masters at a ago, at the same time you are a media personnel which is a technical position and at the same time you claim to be a politician, if you prefer politics, your way is open but don’t take media as your policy of political shield of which some of you are trying to develop,” Hassan warned the journalists.

This is the first time the state governor spoke to state information ministry staff following the last month arrest of four state staff for failing to cover the speech by the president during his visit to Wau in December.

However the state governor said the independent media were reporting negatives on the state government during the youth protests in Wau last year.

He urged the state media to work hard and report on positives which the state government has done to maintain security and support the ongoing developments.

“Building of new nation is not easy, it requires collective efforts from everybody especially you the media in providing accurate information to the public on the government policies toward peace and development,” he said.

The government arrested two state broadcast journalists for failing to ensure coverage of a crucial speech by President Salva Kiir prompting an outcry from an international media watchdog.

Journalists often complain of persecution by the security services of the African republic that seceded from Sudan in 2011.

The government of South Sudan’s Western Bahr El Ghazal state said it had detained two senior staff at its broadcaster for “administrative issues” after the station failed to cover Kiir’s visit to the town of Wau last month.

The Committee to Protect Journalists, a New York-based media watchdog, said the journalists had been arrested probably as part of a campaign to stop the media from investigating unrest in Wau. Soldiers shot dead 10 people protesting against the relocation of a local council, triggering more violence.

South Sudan is a country with no media law, making it difficult for reporters to get information.

In December, unknown gunmen shot dead prominent blogger and government critic Diing Chan Awuol at his home.