Media Tasked To Spread Peace Messages, Discourage Raiding
The United Democratic Front (UDF) Chairperson in Eastern Equatoria State has appealed to the media at the state and national levels to engage the communities with messages designed to discourage them from practising cattle raids and killing each other. 28 April 2013 South Sudanese media crew covering a rally in Torit on Thursday 25, April 2013. South Sudan is a country with no media law, making it difficult for reporters to get information from key sources. [Peter Lokale Nakimangole] By Peter Lokale Nakimangole TORIT, 28 April 2013 [Gurtong] – Hon. Sebit Quarto says this will help draw reluctance among warring communities especially the cattle keepers in the nation. The UDF leader made the remarks when the state governor Louis Lobong Lojore called the Torit residents to brief them on security, social and economic situation in the state and at the national level. Hon. Quarto who currently heads the State Employees Justice also advised the media to broaden their coverage and remain comprehensive by engaging impartiality while avoiding only focusing on government activities. He said the media should instead go extra further outside for important activities that appear to bring peace and stability. The leader strongly requests women as strong activists to join the media industry to voice out community concerns saying neglecting such efforts to engage communities through the media especially radios and newspapers will take the state population nowhere. Underscoring the importance of the media, Quarto insists that the media will always help building and bringing peace and stability if it is engaged and friendly acknowledging the fact that the young country’s government is in a process of building up the country and defining the common norms and values of freedom of expression. He notes that without involvement of the media in peace building processes, no sustainable peace can be easily be attained. Quarto prefers the Media especially radios to design messages through dramas so to be shown or played for the communities to learn from them. Although journalism persists to be a risky job, analysts have noted that the media sector in the Country of South Sudan has been building up rapidly ever since the birth of the new nation in July 2011. South Sudan is a country with no media law, making it difficult for reporters to get information from key sources. In December, unknown gunmen shot dead prominent blogger and government critic Diing Chan Awuol at his home in Juba. The killing highlighted the deteriorating media climate in a young country barely two years old. Having split in 2011 from Sudan - ranked 170th in the press freedom index - South Sudan ranked 111th out of 179 states last year. But the media organisation Reporters Without Borders warns that its ranking is expected to slip in 2013. Posted in: Home, Governance, Media News -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "South Sudan Info - The Kob" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
