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             U.S. Media Advocates Warn of Repression in South Sudan

   by Jill Craig

   Last week, the United States Department of State and the advocacy group
   Human Rights First launched the 2013 Free The Press Campaign to bring
   awareness to the importance of media freedom worldwide in the lead-up
   to today's World Press Freedom Day. Officials say that free and
   unobstructed journalism is crucial for healthy societies.
   According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, 70 journalists were
   killed in direct relation to their work in 2012, and of that number, 32
   were murdered. The organization says it was one of the deadliest years
   on record for reporters.
   Tara Sonenshine is the Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy
   and Public Affairs at the US Department of State. She says that
   governments around the world should make developing and supporting
   independent journalism a top priority.
   "It takes work and resources and training and ethics and an enabling
   environment. Just as you need an enabling environment for economic
   growth or for democratic transition, you need an enabling environment
   for media development," she said. "It's its own development sector and
   we haven't always seen it in those terms."
   Sonenshine added that media freedom isn't just important - it's
   necessary.
   "Information is as basic to me as water and air because without it, you
   are trapped," she said.
   Experts claim that many countries prefer their citizens not to have
   this information. As Senior Government Fellow at Human Rights First,
   Sonni Efron says that many journalists suffer in their line of work,
   and she noted the killing of Isaiah Diing Abraham Chan Awuol in South
   Sudan last December.
   "Obviously, people have faced illegal detention, beatings and
   assassinations. As I'm sure your listeners know, last December Isaiah
   Diing Abraham Chan Awuol was assassinated in front of his home," she
   said. "These attacks and murders of journalists have a profound
   chilling effect on the free flow of information that is so important to
   all countries, but especially to the development of new democracy like
   South Sudan."
   No suspects have ever been apprehended for Diing's murder.
   Efron says the chilling effect on journalism is particularly concerning
   as more and more people consume their information through mobile phones
   and other electronic devices.
   "So, digital repression is really a threat in a range of ways that
   haven't been fully recognized yet. Of course, governments are very
   worried now about what people are tweeting and what people are
   blogging," she said. "But in order to really solve the problems that
   all of us face together, we have to have a healthy public debate."
   A healthy public debate will have far-reaching positive effects for
   South Sudan, according to Efron.
   "I think that a healthy, free media, where journalists can practice
   their profession without fear of repression or attack or god forbid,
   even murder is something that's going to be in the interest of South
   Sudan as a country as it matures," she said. "It's going to be of
   course useful to the South Sudanese people but it's also going to be
   good for South Sudan's position in the world."
   The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization
   has designated May 3 as World Press Freedom Day to shine a spotlight on
   violations of press freedom and to pay tribute to journalists who have
   lost their lives in the line of duty.
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   -south-sudan/1654166.html

References

   1. http://www.voanews.com/content/us-media-advocates-warn-of-repression-south-sudan/1654166.html