With peace in sight, South Sudan’s journalists are looking to a hopeful future

Two years, an estimated 50,000 deaths and more than 2.2 million displaced persons later, a transition to peace may finally be underway for South Sudan, the world’s newest country.

A delegation of rebels returned from exile to the capital Juba on Monday to begin implementing a months’ old peace deal — bringing with them a glimmer of hope for the country’s besieged journalists.

“Eventually, little by little, we will have peace,” says a jubilant Oliver Modi, the head of the union of journalists of South Sudan, on the phone from Juba.

“When we do, our journalists need to be ready — to cover the process in Parliament, to show people what it all means, and to be sure we are also showing them how Parliament is spending the country’s money!”

Independent since 2011, South Sudan has focused much of its energies on ripping itself apart on ethnic lines. Civil conflict has decimated the country since December 2013^[1], when the current president, Salva Kiir, a Dinka, accused his vice-president, Riek Machar, a Nuer, of attempting a coup.

The peace process has been a long time coming. Both sides signed an accord on Aug. 26, but in the months since, there have been repeated ceasefire violations on both sides. Throughout, the arrival of the rebels’ advance team — a prerequisite for peace — kept getting pushed back.

As in any conflict, reliable information has been the first casualty.

“The majority of journalists, they are afraid,” says Modi, who describes his job as shoring up a sector under siege. “Media houses have been closed, journalists killed.”

On a recent visit to Juba with Journalists for Human Rights, the organization I run, we visited a prominent radio station based in the capital — one of several JHR is partnered with across the country. Forced off the air in the summer, the station is now back in action.

The station manager described a recent incident, sparked by an interview with a journalist-turned-politician. Officers from the government’s security agency approached him to say he should not have done the interview; the politician was on a list of people the station was “not allowed” to talk to.

“Excellent,” was the manager’s reply. “I’ll broadcast that you are doing that. In fact, send the list to me, and I’ll broadcast who is on it.” The security officer went silent — then dropped the subject. Our partner went back to work — and hasn’t been bothered since.

Another radio partner has only broadcast international correspondence since the conflict began. “That way, we keep our team out of trouble — until peace gets underway in earnest,” explained the station manager.

Neither journalist wished to be identified for this story due to safety concerns.

Nine South Sudanese journalists have been killed^[2] this year alone, earning the country a six-point drop on the 2015 Press Freedom Index of Reporters Without Borders. This comes despite South Sudan’s decision to sign on as one of five countries chosen to implement the United Nations’ Plan of Action to ensure safety of journalists.

“There has been a steady escalation of incidents against journalists,” says Lydiah Gachungi, project officer with UNESCO, which has been mandated to enforce the UN plan. “But,” Gachungi says firmly, “there is still hope.”

She cites training of journalists, their aptitude for professionalization, and a strong appetite from officials to learn how to work with journalists as indicators the situation could significantly improve.

During JHR’s recent visit, journalists expressed resolve to work together to address the security issue. And security and government forces also showed a surprising level of willingness to learn how to improve the relationship. The undersecretary of the ministry of information, Justin Aleer, actively encouraged the JHR team to engage with both his own staff and with security.

What’s needed is training — both for journalists and for the officials — and for reliable channels of communication between press and government to be put in place to enable disputes to be resolved through dialogue. (Training officials and helping the sector establish such channels between government and the press are both prominent aspects of the next phase of JHR’s work in the country.)

“We can’t just focus on the journalists alone — we have to focus on the entire problem,” says Gachungi.

“We have to firmly establish the role of media as a key component element of the system of governance,” Modi says, “while putting the pieces in place that ensure officials let journalists do their jobs.”