South Sudan journalists disagree on UN safety action plan

The Secretary-General of Union of Journalists of South Sudan (UJOSS), Mr Edward Terso, has defended the government's implementation of the UN Plan of Action on safety of media practitioners.

He instead said the current conflict ravaging the country was to blame for the journalists' woes.

"It is not true because the evidences include the establishment of the Media Authority and the passing of media laws in 2014,'' he aid about the implementation of the UN plan.

However, human rights defender and a journalist Peter Gai said the Juba government had adamantly refused to implement the plan since its acceptance of the UN-backed initiative in 2013.

The government, Mr Gai said, was instead sponsoring impunity against journalists.

He alleged that President Salva Kiir's administration was killing journalists with impunity, just because of reporting the grand corruption and human rights abuses in South Sudan.

"South Sudan government up to now is killing journalists and human rights defenders who are critical of President Kiir's administration and the same government is still looking for other journalists who have run into exile for their safety," he said.

The UN Action plan tasked South Sudan government to end impunity against journalists and to create safer environment for them to operate freely.

Several journalists told the Africareview in Juba that President Kiir directly bore the responsibility for the deteriorating press freedom environment in South Sudan.

A Juba-based journalist, Mr Alberto Legge, said the consequences of not taking the UN Action Plan were huge as evidenced by the closure of several media houses and the arbitrary arrest, detention, harassment and killing of journalists.

He said that the growing aggression against journalists started in 2015 after President Kiir publicly issued a murder threat against those he accused of reporting against the country.

"If anybody among you (journalists) does not know that this country has killed people, we will demonstrate it one day, one time. Freedom of the press does not mean you work against the country," President Kiir was quoted as saying in August 2015 by the local media.

Mr Legge said President Kiir should be held responsible for all the journalists killed in South Sudan after his threat.

But Mr Terso alleged that some journalists were not following the code of ethics to qualify to be protected by the law.

"Some of our journalists are ignorant of national laws such as the transitional constitution, national security act, including the media laws and that is why some get themselves in trouble," he stressed.

The Editor-in-Chief of Gurtong Media, Mr Jacob J Akol, acknowledged the suffering of the South Sudan journalists and blamed a recently-established regulator for clamping down on the independent media.

He said in an opinion in the Juba Monitor on Tuesday that the South Sudan media regulator had misused the powers bestowed upon against journalists.

The regulator in September directed all media houses and journalists to register with it or face dire consequences.

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) ranked South Sudan the second worst country to practice journalism after Somalia.

So far, the country has lost at least 11 journalists in line of duty, including an American, Mr Christopher Allen, who was killed in a crossfire between rebels and government fighters in Yei River State in August.