NSS stops ‘unauthorised’ media press conference

JUBA – The National Security Service (NSS) has stopped a press conference organized by the media fraternity at the facilities of the Association for Media Development in South Sudan in the capital Juba on the grounds of authorisation and clearance.

Journalists from different media houses in South Sudan were ordered to leave the conference hall a few minutes after the event commenced on Wednesday afternoon.

The press conference was organised by reputable national media institutions comprising the Union of Journalists of South Sudan (UJOSS), Association for Media Development in South Sudan (AMDISS), National Editors’ Forum, and Eye Radio, Community Media Network South Sudan, National Press Club, Association of Women in Media in South Sudan, The Radio Community, and Female Journalists Network.

The representatives from the media fraternity organised the press conference to voice their concerns on the inclusion of the media in the permanent constitution-making process launched in May this year.

The NSS blamed the organisers for failing to inform the Media Authority and getting clearance for the event.

“Sorry for the inconvenience, can you all come out with all your equipment. You did not inform the Media Authority,” said an officer who stood at the entrance of the conference hall. “Can you all go to the Media Authority, I mean everybody?”

“For now we want this place to remain without journalists, each journalist should go to their respective media houses,” he ordered.

In the process, one scribe had his smartphone confiscated by the officers who accused him of recording what was happening.

The organisers of the press conference were Mary Ajith, the Chairperson of AMDISS and current head of Board of Directors at the South Sudan Broadcasting Corporation, Oyet Patrick, Chairperson UJOSS, Josephine Achiro, Chairperson, the Radio Community, and James Ochaya, Chairperson for the National Press Club.

Media houses represented by reporters were the City Review, VOA, Radio Miraya, Juba Monitor, The Dawn Newspaper, The Community Radio, SSBC Radio and TV, and No1 Citizen.

In 2015 the Heads of Media Association in South Sudan called for the implementation of the media law in order to guarantee freedom of expression and the right to information. It was not clear the law has been implemented.

In April this year, the Media Authority in collaboration with the National Communication Authority launched the Code of Conduct for the Practice of Journalism in South Sudan which should usher in the spirit of cooperation between authorities and the media fraternity.