Hon. Michael Makwei Lueth, Gov’t new warning to journalists is misplaced
4 min readBy Philip Thon Aleu, Juba, South Sudan
November 6, 2015 (SSB) — Minister of information and broadcasting, Hon. Michael Makuei Lueth, addressed the media in Juba on Thursday and had this say:
“It is high time for the media to change its language. I know among you are those who are pro and against the government. As of now let us change the language. If you are the supporter of the government don’t write any other unhealthy language. We don’t want any further hostile propaganda. We don’t want hate speech in the radios. Your programs that are having direct calls and anybody can talk his nonsense; we don’t want. Because it is these contacts which you make directly in the air with telephones in your radios that cause us problems. We don’t want such programs to continue unless you are sure of the person you are talking to. If you continue to allow those who use that language we will be on your neck. We have accepted peace, we are for peace and we don’t want anybody to say whatever against the other. But let us talk the language of peace language of unity, peaceful coexistence. Whatever happens is usually inflated by the media and if the media is friendly whatever happen is peace and we want peace in South Sudan and we must all work for it.”
This concluding statement, a stun warning directed at the reporters, concluded a press conference where Hon. Makuei appealed at length to members of the international community – the United States, Norway, United Kingdom, China, EU etc, to organize a donor conference to raise funds to help implement the peace agreement. This is how he specifically made his appeal.
“As we know very well the implementation of this agreement means money and we don’t have the money. We are very frank. We don’t have money as the government of South Sudan. And the rebels have no money. So here we [government and opposition] agreed that yes we should mobilize resources because without resources it will be difficult to start as of now.”
The two statements cannot marry. You cannot beg the international community to fund the peace agreement and at the same stifling the media – which is supposed to take your message to wider constituencies in the international community and provide an oversight role in the management of the donors’ funds. Unlike South Sudan, the governments of the U.S, UK, EU etc are accountable to their constituencies and will donate less money to a country managed by intolerant leaders. It is tyranny to intimidate the press and dictate on what the citizens should say.
This war which the government, the SPLM in Opposition and Former detainees are ending through the Agreement to Resolve the Conflict in South Sudan (ARCSS) did not start from live radio calls. The conflict, as admitted in Arusha, Tanzania, by the three factions started in the SPLM party power struggle. This was repeated in the African Union Commission of Inquiry on South Sudan (AUCISS) report about the cause of the conflict in our country. It has nothing to do with the citizens expressing their views.
The trouble with such warnings is that the security men and women will use it as a blessing in disguise to interfere with the media contents and programs. The consequences will include self-censorship, detention of reporters, torture and even killing. In the end, the peace messages that the parties to the agreement intend to be preached will be compromised. The billions of money that the government and opposition are requesting might not be raised.
One would have expected the minister of information to tell the international community how those funds, if donated, will be managed in a very transparent manner. It is therefore highly recommended that Hon. Michael Makuei Lueth retract, clarify or withdraw that unfortunate statement. Failure to explain what this warning means risks the lives of South Sudanese journalists and amount to constitutional violate on the freedom of the press and expression.
© Philip Thon Aleu 2015
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