Commissioner of Yei River County in Central Equatoria State on Tuesday applauded the role played by media houses in the propagation of peace in the region.
Aggrey Cyrus Kanyikwa described the media as an instrumental tool that has done a very great job in promoting peace, creating awareness and understanding of each other, Radio Easter reported.
He regretted that sometimes the media is used without proper understanding of how it is to be used as a fundamental tool for change and transformation of the societies and enforcement of laws.
“Media is a very instrumental tool and has done a very great job in promoting peace and creating awareness and understanding of what and who we are as human beings, institutions and as a government. This tool is utilized without proper understanding of how we are supposed to use media as a fundamental tool for change and transformation and enforcement of laws,” the commissioner explains.
Cyrus believes that local government succeeds by massive awareness and enlightening people to understanding the government settings through the media.
He called for cooperation between media houses and the government in order to strengthen media activities for service delivery to citizens.
“Local government succeeds by massive awareness and creating people to understand. It is not the state or national government but the national and state governments provide policies and are implemented by the local government but where actions are needed, it is at the local level. Where local government do not have good leaders, then that local government do not function and people do not receive the services they are supposed to be given. This is an opportunity for us to sit together with the state authority to share on how we can cooperate with them,” the commissioner testified.
Meanwhile Peter Umba Bosco, Director-General in the Ministry of Information and Communication, Central Equatoria State appreciates the fundamental roles in the communities.
He believes that the media is useful in promotion of peace building and local cultures or businesses.
Umba regretted that some people and institutions misuse the media, calling for common understanding in order to protect the media houses from abuse and manipulation.
“The media in every community or society plays fundamental roles and we appreciate that role. It is either promotion of peace building, promotion of local cultures or promotion of businesses. In some situations knowing or unknowingly, some people or institutions can misuse the media. So that is where we need to come into common understanding so that we can be able to protect the media from abuse and manipulation,” he advised.
The two leaders made the statements on Tuesday while briefing members of media houses in Yei on the states media policies.