?We as Sudanese are facing monumental challenges, and we need the media to help us to overcome these. The media is so important because people must know the activities and policies of the government. It?s crucial that this information is robust and autonomous,? says Deng Deng Nhial, a spokesman for the Government of Southern Sudan (GoSS).
The Southern authorities often criticize President Omar al-Bashir?s administration, saying it does not respect freedom of expression. On paper, the GoSS certainly makes all the right noises with regard to allowing independent media to operate in Southern Sudan, setting itself seemingly in stark contrast to the Northern rulers.
?We have established institutions and laws ? a bill of rights ? that guarantee the freedom of the media from interference by the authorities. We guarantee the functioning of modern, independent media in southern Sudan and will respect all human rights pertaining to journalists in our country. In the long term, we will promote public service broadcasting at a state level,? Nhial pledges.
But, say reporters and human rights groups, SPLM officials are themselves often guilty of media repression.
?There are a lot of reports that we?ve seen of journalists being harassed in the South, especially by lower level officials,? says Dave Peterson, who?s analyzing media developments in Sudan for the National Endowment for Democracy in Washington.
?Press freedom is a platitude in Sudan,? says John Tanza, an experienced Southern Sudanese radio journalist.
?I have had to fly a number of times to Khartoum to get reporters out of jail?. There?s a disconnect about what comes out of the government officials mouths, and what is actually implemented in terms of press freedom.?
Tanza says members of the SPLM and the parties? security forces are ?hostile? to the media.
?Every location you go to, you must report to authorities, announce your arrival and your mission, and what you intend to write about. The police, the lower officials, they don?t know anything about freedom of expression; they only know the rule of the gun or the stick.?
According to Tanza, journalists in Southern Sudan ? unlike those in the North ? are generally free to criticize government policy and administration agents. But, he maintains, such privilege ?comes at a price.?
?The most shocking thing is that what you say on those radio stations or what you write in those newspapers, matters. If you write something that the government (of Southern Sudan) thinks is critical of them, you can get a phone call (from an official warning you to stop broadcasting or publishing the story) or you can see soldiers outside your radio station. It has happened in Juba; there were radio stations closed. There were newspaper editors summoned for stories which the Government of Southern Sudan deemed were very bad for its image,? Tanza explains.
Nhial acknowledges such incidents.
?It?s because of a mindset. They (the SPLM officials) are not used to that culture of freedom.?
Observers of media developments in Sudan agree that it?s mostly lower-level SPLM officials and security forces who are harassing reporters, because they?re generally ignorant of freedom of expression provisions contained in the Comprehensive Peace Agreement, which in 2005 ended two decades of civil war between the North and South.
Says Tanza, ?The big boss can tell you that you?re free to do whatever you want to do. But the foot soldier ? he doesn?t want to know that; he looks at you and says, ?No, you?re not supposed to take photographs; you?re not supposed to talk to this person; you?re not supposed to ask him those questions.? There?s a lot of media education that is lacking in South Sudan. Most of these people in power, they need to go through media education. They need to know what the role of a journalist is.?
Jeremy Groce, of Sudan Radio Services, which broadcasts news from Kenya into Southern Sudan, says there?s ?good will? towards the media from the GoSS, but he adds, ?On the ground, lower level officials don?t understand the media at all. They persecute journalists if they?re unhappy with the news.?
Nhial acknowledges that ?relatively minor? officials from his government often consider reporters to be the ?enemy.?
?The government of Southern Sudan is working very hard. It does recognize the problems that are existing at state and county level, that free media hasn?t reached that area.?
But Tanza fears that Nhial?s acknowledgments will go no further than ?mere words.? What he wants is ?action? regarding SPLM officials? lack of cooperation with the media.