GOSS MEDIA BILLS LIKELY TO SPARK STREET UNREST, SAYS EDITOR

The chief editor of a Juba based newspaper wrote an open letter to GoSS Minister for Information and Broadcasting alerting for the dangers the media bills waiting to be passed by Southern Sudan Legislative Assembly pose including street unrest.
Nhial Bol Aken wrote in his Straight Talk column in today’s edition of “The Citizen” that “the current media bills would invent war which neither the ministry of Information nor the SPLM leadership are prepared to handle.”

Mr. Nhial’s letter come after minister Paul Mayom Akech told the BBC in an interview that an individual had approached GoSS president Salva Kiir Mayardit and asked him to change the proposed laws and add parts which had been left out from the draft prepared by Southern Sudan media houses and associations.

Mr. Mayom said that the individual used the wrong channel and should not have gone straight to the president with this complaint.

Mr. Nhial acknowledged that the media bills will create gaps if not amended.

However, he added that the media in South Sudan is capable of staging demonstrations to demand democratic media laws to be passed before the 2010 elections.

He accused some sectors within the SPLM to follow Northern intellectuals by championing bills that tolerate dictatorship.