Journalists have expressed major concerns over the discrepancies they found during the three-day media bills public hearing between the version they received and the version used by some officials.
Daily Mentor Editor, Edward Lodu Terso, said he noticed during the first day that the Minister of Justice was reading a different text of the media bills from the one passed by the Council of Ministers.He said the executive organ wants media laws that protect public figures and there is nothing mentioned about regulating the executive.
Stephen Hakim Moi from AMDISS, the Association for Media Development in South Sudan, said there were some disparities during the media bills public hearing.
He said AMDISS is consulting with all the relevant stakeholders to ensure that the right bills are presented to the parliament because the future laws represent a matter of concern.
South Sudan Law Society Secretary-General Dong Samuel also confirmed discrepancies in the media bills used by officials and those put under discussion during the public hearing.
He warned that the law making process in South Sudan is not transparent.
Mr Samuel vowed to lobby lawmakers to ensure the media laws passed by the Council of Ministers were those presented and endorsed by the national parliament.
The journalists expressed their professional concerns at a solidarity conference on media draft bills organized by the AMDISS on Wednesday in Juba.