Africa-Press – South-Sudan. At least 30 participants, including journalists and health officials in Lakes State, have undergone orientation on communication policies for the State Health Transformation Project to ensure accurate, ethical, and responsible reporting.
The two-day training, organized by the National Ministry of Health with support from UNICEF, is aimed to educate communication focal points and journalists on the goals, objectives, and communication responsibilities of the project.
However, its primary focus is on ethical media reporting to safeguard the project’s reputation.
Dr. Maker Malok Chieny, Director-General of the State Ministry of Health in Lakes State, emphasized that communication within the health system should follow a clear chain, from county health departments to the state and national levels.
This, he said, is to ensure that information is reported accurately and through the appropriate channels. “The main purpose of the workshop is the chain of communication and reporting were centralized so that each and every one cannot report on his or her own,” Malok said.
“Things can start from the country health department especially at the grassroots level up to the state ministry of health and then we report back to the national ministry of health.”
“Things of random reporting were discussed so that each and everyone knows their role and when they are reporting, it is one of the very good workshops and all of us were highlighted.”
He noted that such training is vital for avoiding issues like misinformation, citing an incident in December 2024 when a midwife allegedly made unauthorized public statements.
Dr. Chieny also mentioned that the majority of Lakes State’s population does not have radio access – and only 10-20% of people receiving information through that medium.
Mach Achiek, Director of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) at the Ministry of Health, spoke about the growing use of digital reporting tools and artificial intelligence (AI) in journalism.
He also emphasized the importance of not prematurely declaring health outbreaks.
“The context of South Sudan might be different, so sometimes if you are doing news reporting on issues to do with health, you have to verify. We came and had a one on one discussion with journalists and in case they have an outbreak, there is no way a journalist will report that there is declaration of outbreak without approval of the national ministry of health.”
Mr. Achiek said the National Ministry of Health is the custodian that can declare outbreak, adding that even the state health ministry is not supposed to declare it.
Mayak Majak Madit, Coordinator of the Union of Journalists of South Sudan, Lakes State branch, also participated in the workshop.
He commended the National Ministry of Health for organizing the training, urging them to continue offering such sessions to ensure effective information dissemination across the state, particularly in remote areas.
Majak called for more training for journalists in Lakes State, pointing out that the media plays a key role in preventing the spread of misinformation, particularly concerning health issues like cholera outbreaks.
“This two-day program which is very interactive and we urge our national ministry of health to double their efforts to get other trainings from lakes state journalists and ministry of health for the information to reach remote areas such that the population will be informed of what is going on.”
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