The media in South Sudan has concluded two days of discussion on election preparedness at the Royal Palace Hotel in Juba. The Round Table Discussion was organized by AMDISS and IREX.
It brought two Journalists from the region to share their own experiences of election preparedness and reporting with those in South Sudan. Victor Bwire works with the Media Council of Kenya. He said the South Sudan media need to stop lamenting about being young and the limitations they faced and prepare themselves to carry out their duty.
“You will need to work with other players to undertake your role of civic education. Prepare and have a list of experts whom you can call in at any time to provide analysis on any election-related issue,” said Victor.
He said a lot relating to media leadership and collaboration, safety, and protection of journalists as well as their accreditation and regulations when it comes to elections and how the Media Council of Kenya has approached these issues.
Meanwhile, Onziga Simon an Editor with Radio Pacis, catholic community radio in the Northern part of Uganda provided an insight into how they covered elections in the West Nile region of Northern Uganda.
“Collaborating with the Electoral Commission to map out electoral areas and deploying Communication secretaries to those areas can strengthen media coverage during elections, especially for community radio stations,” said Onziga.
He said that creating the structures helped them report on the elections efficiently and effectively. He added that journalists should focus on issues rather than personalities which will minimize tribalism and ethnic divides.
These journalists were drawn from all over the country across the broadcast and print media to reflect on the Sudan 2010 elections and learn from the experiences of Kenya and Uganda.
Patrick Riruyo USAID Agreement Officer Representative commended AMDISS for their efforts.
“I am grateful for this opportunity and would like to express my gratitude to IREX in partnership with AMDISS for organizing this forum at this critical time when South Sudan is looking forward to an election in 2024,” said Patrick.
He was also appreciative of the two journalists from Kenya and Uganda for accepting to join their colleagues in South Sudan and share their election experiences given their familiarity with the kinds of issues that media can face at different stages of an election process.
At the end of the two days, the media came up with several recommendations. Some of the recommendations include training and capacity building, media literacy, and the formation or reviving of the Media Sector Working Group which once existed 6 years ago before it died.
Ayaa Irene Lokang, Director of AMDISS said the media has a huge task ahead and they will require the civil society, religious, and many other actors.
“It is not the media calling for elections; it is the constitution calling for it and therefore, as media we just have to prepare for it because we have a role to play,” said Ayaa.
She added that the media needs to engage in conversation about its unity.
“As we go for this discussion today as media leaders, I urge us to discuss our unity and solidarity as the media. Currently, we are not united as the media. As I speak now, one of the newspapers is closed and since that happened, I have not seen media houses publishing stories about the closure of that media house. What does this tell us? This simply means that we are not united,” said Ayaa Patrick Riruyo reiterated USAID’s commitment to supporting independent media in South Sudan.
That is why USAID and Pact and IREX partnership is implementing the sustainable Independent Media Activity project,” said Patrick.
He pointed out that continued collaboration among media houses during elections is essential for enhancing coverage, promoting transparency, reaching a wider audience, and advocating for democratic principles.