Media and security meet to mend fraught relations

Journalists complain of harassment, detention and abuse, while security agents argue that some reporters fail to do their job.

Top leaders of South Sudanese security forces met veteran media practitioners in Juba last week, in a bid to warm the icy atmosphere dividing the two camps.

Against a background of journalists’ complaints of abuse, General Ramandan Chader Dhok, Director of Information, told reporters to cooperate with security forces to improve the security of the country.

The relationship between security and media decayed when media houses started to reveal some of the security secrets and publish wrong information to the public about the security most especially police section, Ramandan told the meeting, organised by the Association for Media Development in South Sudan (AMDISS) and facilitated by Norwegian People’s Aid in Juba.

He said relations deteriorated in 2009 when the media turned out to be an enemy” of national security. Then we reacted,” Ramandan said.

Reporters Without Borders’ report – in English, French and Arabic – on the state of freedom of information in South Sudan. Download the report, entitled World’s youngest country yet to embark on road to civil liberties.”Journalists, meanwhile, have complained of detention, harassment and beatings. Editors and publishing houses have been put under pressure and sometimes forced to stop publishing.

Reporters Without Borders, the international media freedom advocacy group, warned earlier this year that the world’s newest nation South Sudan risks becoming as restrictive as Sudan. Journalists often faced violence and intimidation,” it said.

John Thor Biar from the SPLA communication office complained about the poor relationship between the two groups. Without the media, security could not get information across the country, he said.

He urged the media and the public to be patient with the security forces, saying that the majority are traumatised by their wartime experiences and many were illiterate.

To improve this relationship, a committee comprising both sides should oversee the relationship, he said.

Monday James, a police spokesperson, said he had received many complaints from media houses that their journalists were put under pressure by national security forces or the police. They have since all been freed, he said.
 
Monday also blamed journalists for not behaving according to their professional best practice and also, in some cases, committing crimes, he said. Last week a journalist was arrested for raping a girl on a road in Gudele, he said.

He said, media and security should work together for the development of South Sudan.

From the media’s perspective, Alfred Taban, the Chief Editor of Juba Monitor said that the dialogue will help heal the loss of trust between the two parties.

He said journalists across South Sudan are impeded by security personal. Taban blames the violence and restrictions on security leaders who recruit illiterate boys and give them positions of power.

The editor of The Citizen, Keri Wani, accused the security body for arresting large numbers of journalists since the start of the year. The Destiny magazine was closed down by the national security forces after publishing story about the president’s daughter’s marriage, he said.

Aloro John, a freelance journalist, said he was arrested several times by the National Security services while in the field. He welcomed the move towards improving relations between reporters and the police.

The two groups agreed on a number of recommendations: journalists should not be beaten and should be protected by security during public events. Also journalists should behave professionally and should not take bribes to defame politicians. However, no details were agreed on how these recommendations could be enforced.