Africa-Press – South-Sudan. The Secretary General of the government has said South Sudan’s media environment is still fragile, citing the illiteracy rate and the 2013 and 2016 conflicts.
Abdon Agau said the current situation in South Sudan cannot be described as ideal for journalists due to the years of violence.
According to the senior government official, despite the presence of media laws, South Sudan cannot be compared with the developed countries.
He made the remarks during a two-day forum to explore the landscape of laws and regulations on freedom of expression and freedom of the media in South Sudan, yesterday.
The Secretary General of the government Agau called on journalists to be patient as the government exerts efforts to address the shrinking media freedom in the country.
“As a journalist, you must have this at back on your mind throughout your work, the current situation in our country cannot be described as an ideal situation for the work of journalists, this is because the situation we are in right now comes as a result of resolving a war situation,” said Abdon.
“You know that from 2013 and then again in 2016, there were two consecutive civil conflicts in our country, not to speak of other disturbances that continue to exist in some parts of our country,” he said.
“Even with the presence of laws the media should not expect that things will [be] so ideal that they will operate as they operating in one of the western countries.”
Abdon Agau went on to say the low level of literacy is one of the difficulties affecting the media environment in South Sudan.
“There are other objective difficulties with the work of media, the work of journalists generally in the case of South Sudan, faces difficulties that many of you should be aware of, and in this regard, I want to point out that our situation as South Sudan is affected by many things, one is our level of literacy is still low.”
According to the latest report by human rights bodies, South Sudan media faces steep challenges due to poor infrastructure, low investment, and poor pay and training for journalists.
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