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Radio is the main source of information in Southern Sudan. By SIMON MAINA (AFP)
Journalists from Sudanese radio station Eye Radio were threatened, removed from the airwaves and forced to hide in the corridors as bullets flew past their studios.
The only independent radio station in this war-torn country must balance things between providing credible information and not criticizing the government.
"We are struggling to stay independent," AFP station director Koang Pal Chang, 45, told AFP.
"The media are censoring themselves to avoid having problems of authority".
The radio station began broadcasting in the years leading up to the independence of Southern Sudan in 2011. Then, in 2013, the war broke out when President Salva Kiir and his former Vice President Riek Machar met. scrambled.
In 2016, a peace agreement collapsed and Juba was hit by three days of fighting, concentrated in the Jebel district, home to Machar's headquarters and Eye Radio studios.
"The bullets were flying everywhere and even our press room was hit, we could see a battleship floating around us, it was like we were in a movie," Chang said.
According to the director of the station, Eye Radio has about a million listeners out of an estimated population of 12 million in a country where few people have access to a radio.
This makes it difficult to disseminate crucial information, for example on the signing of a new peace agreement in September 2018.
"There are places where … people are not even aware of the peace agreement, there is no type of media," Chang said.
News by bullet
According to the International Telecommunication Union, there are about 60 indigenous languages in South Sudan, no electricity network and less than 4% of the inhabitants have Internet access at home.
A study conducted in 2017 by the humanitarian organization REACH revealed that language and illiteracy were the main obstacles to information in the youngest country in the world.
Radio is the main source of information, while in IDP camps, loudspeakers are also used.
In South Sudan, "One of the most cited sources of information on emergencies was the shots," the study revealed.
Journalists from Sudanese radio station Eye Radio were threatened, removed from the show and had to calm down in the corridors as the bullets flew outside. By SIMON MAINA (AFP) "Some South Sudanese rely totally on traditional forms of communication, such as sending runners to neighboring communities, performing war songs, displaying smoke signals … to alert of a threat or an unfortunate event, "adds the text.
Eye Radio is the only national broadcaster to provide a news summary of the week in several local languages.
South Sudan also has the United Nations Radio Miraya, Tamazuj radio broadcast from outside the country, the Catholic radio network and dozens of small community radio stations.
In a country where 70% of the population is illiterate, newspapers are barely read outside the capital and face their own challenges.
"You see blank pages (in the newspaper) .Safety (forces) is stationed at the print shop to review the contents before its publication," a local journalist told AFP. covered by anonymity.
Funding decreases
In 2016, Eye Radio was briefly removed from the show after playing a 30-second Machar clip.
"The other media have been completely shut down," Chang said.
Today, instead of making voice recordings of opposition leaders, Eye Radio simply paraphrases their statements.
Insecurity is harder to get around. Journalists can not leave the capital or the main cities to introduce themselves.
Koang Pal Chang, head of the Eye Radio channel, said it was difficult for the media to remain independent. By SIMON MAINA (AFP) "There are so many attacks on the road, sometimes we send reporters but mostly for an organized trip" with the UN or humanitarian agencies, Chang said.
Money is another challenge. A six-year grant from the US Agency for International Development (USAID) is nearing completion.
To reduce costs, the station reduced the newsroom staff and installed 200 solar panels to halve about $ 10,000 spent on generator refueling each month.
"Without donor funding, the country's only independent radio station will be shut down," said Charles Haskins of Internees, a non-profit organization partnering with USAID.
According to Reporters Without Borders, at least 10 journalists were killed in South Sudan between 2014 and 2017. Reporters are victims of "harbadment, arbitrary detention, torture or execution-like killing."
Add a trauma to the list, told AFP journalist Gargan Abraham Malka, 25 years old.
"You see corpses, violence, these things are very normal … What's wrong, is when you see someone who has been shot and fights with life but you can not give him any help. "
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