Media is the people’s messenger and the government should listen

South Sudan cannot be a democratic country when there is no free and independent media.  

History tells us that one of the fundamental reasons the South Sudanese struggled against the North was liberation, to claim the rights they had been denied for years.

Freedom happens when the people can speak. And democracy is what happens when the government listens to them -- and in that, the media is their messenger. Freedom, democracy and an independent media are related and that is why you cannot have a democratic country without a free and independent media.

In a liberated and democratic society, the media plays a vital role in creating, moulding and reflecting public opinion. The third President of the US, Thomas Jefferson, once said: were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter”.

In South Sudan, we must evaluate what kind of media we want. The media should work on stories that generate confidence about the creative potential of the grassroots. But there is an increasing tendency to publicise the trivial, the fashions of the rich and the over-privileged, and to aggressively advertise a consumerist lifestyle that is well beyond the reach of the majority. This means less attention is being paid to the problems of masses, to their suffering and their more realistic aspirations.

The media should be a partner in national development and media managers must recognise their responsibilities. The government too, could be using the media more effectively, making it an instrument of social change.

But instead, the youngest nation in the world has been abusing its media, harassing and beating journalists.

Repression of journalists is the sign of a nation that does not respect human rights. Of course, journalists should be fair, objective and impartial in their reporting and the state security forces have a right to ask them to be. But blocking coverage sends the wrong signal; it sends a signal that this government is only too ready to ignore the criticism and the opinions of ordinary citizens. Because the media serves as a bridge between the government and the people.

And if South Sudan carries on this way, then its reputation with the rest of the world will suffer.

I want our government to know that the media has a distinctive role to play in the bringing of peace and harmony to South Sudan – but it must be free to practise real reporting, in order to do so.