Press Freedom and the Challenges Facing Journalists in Juba, South Sudan Press Freedom and the Challenges Facing Journalists in Juba, South Sudan

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to describe the status of press freedom and investigate the challenges facing journalists in Juba, South Sudan due to lack of media law in the country. This research focused on journalists in Juba, the cosmopolitan and capital city of the Republic of South Sudan. This research focused on expressive freedom of the press, through which the research objectives and questions sought to describe three areas, the status of press freedom, the views’ of journalists on freedom of expression, and the challenges facing journalists in Juba. The study then provided recommendations on how the media can operate freely in Juba, South Sudan. Descriptive research method was used in this study to describe the status of press freedom and the challenges facing journalists in Juba. Quantitative and qualitative data was collected through questionnaires and interviews from 30 journalists and 5 media development organization executives and media managers. Simple random sampling technique was employed to draw the sample of the study. The findings of this research show that press freedom is limited, because the government exercised indirect censorship on media content, which forced journalists to resort to self-censorship as a result. The findings also show that journalists faced challenges of intimidation, harassment and imprisonment mostly from government security organs; however most respondents were satisfied with the role of the media in informing, educating and entertaining especially during the interim period before the independence of South Sudan when media was heavily used to inform and educate the people about the South Sudan referendum. The key recommendations were, first, that the media practitioners should urge the President to sign the Media Bill into law. Secondly, capacity building and training journalists on professional journalism practice is needed. And thirdly, there is a need to establish a standard printing press in South Sudan to allow the print media access print services.