The South Sudan Human Right Commission Chairperson urged the government, media and South Sudanese to allow free debate on federalism.
Lawrence Korbandy in a statement on Friday said authorities must allow a healthier debate and tolerate opinion of all sides to draw useful lessons that would help in fostering democratic process for better South Sudan, Bakhita Radio reported.
He said censoring the debate was unconstitutional, politically incorrect, socially intimidating and democratically a setback that South Sudanese should avoid because they would be scared in any democratic society.
Justice Korbandy was moved by the confiscation of the Juba Monitor Newspaper on July 2 after publishing an article on federalism.
He said the Transitional Constitution guarantee a debate, saying citizen’s opinion on federalism fall within the fundamental rights of freedom of opinion.
The Chairperson said the Commission is monitoring very closely the debate on relevance or irrelevance of possible constitutional adoption of the federal system of governance in South Sudan.
Information Minister Michael Makuei in his letter to Editor’s Forum categorically denied issuing any directive stopping media outlet to publish articles on federalism.
He expressed government commitment to respect and abide by the provision of the Transitional Constitution in letter and spirit, in line with the freedom of expression.