The Need for Reform

Although Salva Kiir Mayardit, president of the Government of Southern Sudan, expresses his interest in making the South a “space for the media to enjoy freedom,” there are no existing laws in southern Sudan ensuring access to information.

The government owns and runs most media outlets throughout the country, and even independent programs—often staffed by people closely connected with the government— self-censor for fear of persecution. As Tom Rhodes of the Committee to Protect Journalists, a press freedom advocacy group, said: “The problem with Sudan is that the people have been abused and scared and they’ve suffered for so long with this civil war. The idea of activism is something most people don’t want to risk. Selfcensorship is still very prevalent.”

Sudanese government officials claim the CPA gives domestic media greater ability to maneuver, and there have been improvements, at least on paper. But while Article 39 of the Interim National Constitution guarantees the right to “freedom of expression,” “access to the press,” and “freedom of press and other media,” the national government continues to harass journalists and deny requests for radio licensing.

Roxanne Abdulali, Africa Program Officer for Article 19—a human rights organization that promotes free expression— explains that Sudanese media law leaves room for oppressive government control. “Current Sudanese legislation on the media runs counter to democratic values and fundamental freedoms, and is therefore in need of urgent reform,” she included in a written statement to the Globalist. “Independent and critical journalism [is] virtually impossible through a combination of harsh restrictions and sanctions and greater control by the government.”

Success in Sudan

Despite the daunting task of providing information to an area with such linguistic diversity, lack of infrastructure, and territorial vastness, there are media development programs broadcasting from within Sudan.

Since 2006, Internews has worked from its Rumbek office in southern Sudan to establish radio stations. Three stations now broadcast to the local population, and they are the first local language community stations to reach such remote areas of the country.

Miraya FM, a United Nations station based in southern Sudan, broadcasts original programming including news, live talk shows, feature pieces, and even a program produced by a team in Darfur. Twenty internationals coordinate the editorial decisions and training programs for the entirely Sudanese production staff. Leon Willems, chief of UN Radio from 2004 to 2007, explained, “Most people we hired were young and had little previous media experience. This was my choice, because the media in Sudan exercise an enormous amount of self-censorship and we wanted to build young and independent new media workers, rather than re-training the people with experience and bias from existing media.”

Miraya FM programming includes “Good Morning Sudan,” “CPA Facts,” which covers chapters of the peace agreement and interviews sources on the subject, “Non- Stop Music Mix,” and “Midnight Miraya Slow Jams.” Since 2004 the Miraya team has petitioned for the right to broadcast in northern Sudan, but the national government continues to deny access.

The BBC World Service Trust, the international development arm of the BBC, produces the Darfur Lifeline Program, the only media operation with staff based permanently in Darfur that is not affiliated with the Sudanese government. The program features personal testimonies, educational reports, and humanitarian news from the conflict region. Its producers and researchers— all Sudanese—are based in Nyala, southern Darfur, and they travel around the region as much as security permits to gather humanitarian information to report on the airwaves.

The team creates 30 minutes of content every day, including information on where to collect firewood and how to avoid disease, as well as a slot reserved for the messages of Darfuris seeking loved ones.

Some media development professionals claim that Darfur Lifeline has the exclusive right to broadcast within Darfur only because it self-censors. Nonetheless, every morning and evening, Lifeline broadcasters are heard in thousands of straw homes belonging to internally displaced refugees who can finally access information on handheld radios. This is what John Granville worked for until his tragic death.