South Sudan said to lift ban on foreign journalists

By Parach Mach

JUBA, South Sudan

South Sudan is lifting a ban on foreign journalists who were barred from the country, paving the way for them to cover its civil war and unfolding humanitarian crisis, said Alfred Taban, a veteran local journalist serving on the national dialogue steering committee.

“A promise has been made by the government to allow foreign journalists after pressure from my sub-committee as head of the information committee in the national dialogue,” Taban told local daily the Juba Monitor on Friday.

After being told the bans are wrong and illegal, the government pledged unhindered media coverage, Taban said.

“This time of national dialogue is for healing, reconciliation by all people and it cannot be possible without media support,” he explained.

In March, the South Sudan Media Authority banned at least 20 foreign journalists from working in the country for what it called "unsubstantiated and unrealistic stories."

Elijah Alier, managing director of the Media Authority, said that the journalists reported stories about South Sudan with elements of hate with the potential to incite violence or stories lacking reliable sources or specific locations or that insult or degrade the country and its people.

In conflict-ridden South Sudan, journalists have repeatedly complained of harassment from the authorities

According to the international Committee to Protect Journalists, five reporters were killed while working in the country in 2015.

Since 2013, South Sudan has been torn mired in deadly conflict between government troops loyal to President Salva Kiir and rebels backing former Vice President Riek Machar. Fighting since has torn the country along ethnic lines, killing tens of thousands and displacing 3 million from their homes.