GoSS minister for Information said that media laws will be passed before the referendum takes place on January 9, 2010.
The media sector in south Sudan has been operating on a rough terrain without laws to regulate their activities leaving journalists vulnerable to security forces like the latest attack on a SCRN reporter by two policemen and one SPLA soldier on Friday in Juba while covering Salva Kiir’s return from the US.Talking to SCR News over the phone from Nairobi, Minister Benjamin Marial Barnaba said the laws were delayed because the government and media houses contested the act on freedom of information.
Mr. Marial said the media houses wanted an absolute right to information published.
He acknowledged that the government and media houses reached a compromise and the government will still maintain the right to information published like most countries.