18 October 2009
As general elections grow ever nearer in Sudan, now scheduled for April 2010, followed by the crucial Referendum in 2011 with the possibility of the country splitting into North and South as separate countries, the need for a conducive media environment to freely engage in relationship debate between North and South has never been so urgent.
Below is part of the Association for Media Development in South Sudan, AMDISS, and partners attempt to walk with the Government of Southern Sudan, since its formation in 2005, to date.
Seemingly smooth, there have been stumbling blocks along the way to the First Reading of badly deformed laws in Parliament. Where exactly the key omissions and commissions to write in controlling clauses by the GoSS occurred is not yet clear; but the battle to get the right democratic legislation passed into laws is now in the Southern Sudan Legislative Assembly.
Please note the dates of the appeal and memo to President Kiir Mayardit.
Appeal to the President of the Government of Southern Sudan Lt. General Salva Kiir Mayardit
5th December 2008,
Juba, Southern Sudan
Your Excellency,
Mindful of and Appreciative of:
1. The historic Comprehensive Peace Agreement, CPA, signed in Kenya in January 2005
2. The Media and Human Rights provision in the National and Southern Sudan Interim Constitutions
3. Your personal publicly stated commitment to full implementation of the CPA and the provisions provided in the CPA and the Interim Constitutions
And
Having noted with regrets:
1. The lack of progress in repealing the repressive Media and Human Rights laws of April 2004
2. The deterioration of freedom of expression and of the media by increased intimidation, harassment, arrest and torture of Human Rights activists and journalists
3. Undue regular censorship and closer of media houses
4. The lack of progress in passing into law the Draft Media Bills for Southern Sudan
We the members of the Southern Roundtable and the Consortium for the Development of Democratic Media Legislation in Sudan therefore:
Urge your Excellency to take appropriate action and use your good offices to expedite the passage of democratic Media Bills through the South Sudan Legislative Assembly, namely,
1. The Right to Information Bill
2. Independent Broadcasting Authority Bill
3. South Sudan Broadcasting Corporation Bill
4.Ministry of Information and Broadcasting Organizational Bill
The Southern Roundtable and the Consortium strongly believe that the enactment of these democratic media and human rights bills will be demonstrative of the Southern Sudan Government’s commitment to the implementation of:
1. The Comprehensive Peace Agreement , CPA
2. The Freedom of Expression and Human Rights provisions in the Southern Sudan Interim Constitution
3. And the rescinding of the existing oppressive National Press and Publications Act of 2004, the New Sudan Law of 2003, and the Criminal Penal Code of 1991 which are regrettably still being applied in Southern Sudan.
We further believe that the passing of these bills into law by the Southern Sudan Legislative Assembly will provide your Excellency, as Vice President of the Government of National Unity, with the moral authority to advocate for the passage of democratic media and human rights legislations in the National Assembly.
Your Excellency, we are hopeful that you will give this appeal your highest priority in the defense of Freedom of Expression, Human Rights and Democracy.
Signed:
Jacob J. Akol
Chairman of Association for Media Development in South Sudan (AMDISS)
For and on behalf of the Southern Sudan Media Roundtable and the Consortium on the Development of Democratic Media Legislation in Sudan:
Association for Media Development in South Sudan (AMDISS)
Khartoum Centre for Human Rights and Environmental Development (KCHRED),
Norwegian Peoples’ Aid (NPA),
ARTICLE 19 – Global Campaign for Free Expression,
International Media Support (IMS)
Olof Palme International Centre (OPIC)
5th December 2008, Juba, Southern Sudan
Contact:
jacobakol@gmail.com
Telephones Juba number: +256477129385
Nairobi number: +254712445347
UK numbers: +447943125843 or 44 01933-391-358
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Memo to:
His Excellency Lt General Salva Kiir Mayardit, President of the Government of Southern Sudan.
CC: His Excellency Dr. Riek Machar Teny, Vice President of the Government of Southern Sudan.
7th October 2009,
Juba, Southern Sudan.
Your Excellency,
Subject: Appreciation and Alert.
On behalf of the Association for Media Development in South Sudan (AMDISS) and on my own behalf, I would like to express sincere appreciation to you and to Vice President Dr. Riek Machar Teny, for your speedy action in moving through the Council of Ministers to the Southern Sudan Assembly the draft media laws that were stuck for months at the Ministerial Cluster for Governance.
I, and I believe AMDISS and members of the media and human rights consortium that have been working on the draft media laws with your government since the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA), were rightly overjoyed of the news, as waning believe in your commitment to democratic governance of the Sudan as a whole and of Southern Sudan in particular were renewed by your positive and speedy action.
However, I find it a matter of duty on my part to alert you of the deformity of the draft laws that were presented to the Southern Sudan Assembly and the action that we at AMDISS and members of the media committee of the assembly have taken so far in attempts to rectify deformed sections that I trust were not fully revealed to both yourself and Dr. Machar, either at the presentation at the Council of Ministers or there after.
Attached to this memo are “Explanatory Notes & Critical Observations” on the sections that would virtually turn the laws into tools for ministerial control of the media. Such a turn of events after our long walk together would be regrettable indeed.
Your Excellency,
It is not that we are not aware of the dire and urgent security and CPA issues facing you and the region at this very moment, nor are we blind to the far worse restrictive media laws and human rights abuses going on in Khartoum. It is just that we have a duty and wish you and the Government of Southern Sudan well in your commitment to full implementation of the CPA and democratic governance. The media laws that were recently presented to the Assembly by the Minister of Constitutional and Legal Affairs would come out terribly shortchanged, just like the Anti-Corruption Laws that lacked substance without the ability to investigate and prosecute, powers that had to be decreed later into the law by yourself.
I sincerely hope the action AMDISS have taken with committee members of the assembly and this alert memo will save these draft legislations from being passed into laws as dismembered as were presented to the assembly by the minister.
Yours Faithfully,
Jacob J. Akol
(Hon Chairman, Association for Media Development in South Sudan).
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The following notes and observations are from AMDISS Hon Secretary, Dr. Hakim Moi, following the presentation of Draft Media Bills to the Southern Sudan Legislative Assembly and his briefing there with the House Committee on Media.
Explanatory Notes & Critical Observations:
The three media bills namely, the Media Authority Bill 2009, the Right to Information Bill 2009 and the Southern Sudan Broadcasting Corporation Bill 2009, that have been presented to the SSLA by the Minister of Legal Affairs and Constitutional Development, contain provisions and clauses which impede and restrict press freedoms, and introduce government control over the media sector.
1. The Media Authority Bill 2009
a. As a regulatory authority over the media, this Bill was originally designed and formulated to specify a number of well defined guiding principles and policies which apply to the broadcasting, print and electronic media. These principles and policies provided the necessary guidance for good governance and protection of independent media from government interference and control. However, all the said principles and policies have been removed from the original draft. For instance the policies removed and omitted from the Bill stated that media licensing shall be narrowly defined and applied only to broadcasting (radio, TV, etc) but not to the print and electronic media. The GOSS instead introduced in their amendment of this Bill the licensing of all the media (print, publications, radio, TV, etc) instead of just broadcasting as was first stated in the bill. The companies act and normal business registration requirements should be applicable to the print and electronic media without additional license requirement that is applicable to the broadcasting sector.
b. Another serious omission in addition to the Guiding Principles is that relating to the policies for Press and Broadcast, Press Freedoms and Independent Media, and Internet in Section 6 on Media Policy. The Guiding Principles together with the policies provide the framework for media oversight and governance by the Independent Media Commission as the regulatory body for the media. The principles guide the policy and the policies promote the principles, the Independent Media Commission, as the regulatory authority for the media in Southern Sudan, needs to be guided by a set of well defined governance principles and policies in its primary function as a regulator. The omission of these principles and policies for the print, broadcast and Internet media constitute a serious gap in promoting the development of an independent media and press freedoms in Southern Sudan, and these guiding principles and stated policies should therefore be reinstated as were originally coded and defined for the media.
c. The third serious omission from the original draft related to the specific regulatory committees/bodies needed to streamline the work of the Commission in accordance with the Guiding Principles, Policies, and International best practice. And these include but not limited to the following:
i. Press & Broadcast Complaints Board and/or Independent Media Council (This has been removed or omitted from the bill)
ii. Hearings Panel (This has been omitted from the bill)
iii. Media Appeals Board (Only this one has been retained, which makes the bill inconsistent by removing complementary components)
iv. Broadcast Frequency Licensing (also removed from the Bill)
v. Complaints and Monitoring (omission)
vi. Legal Counsel (omission)
vii. Engineering & Technical Standards (omission)
viii. Public Affairs and Education (omission)
It is recommended that, in order to maintain consistency and to coherence with the principles and polices stated, the above listed need to be reinstated as proposed in the amendments to this Bill on 25/09/2009.
2. Right of Access to Information
a. In this bill, the GOSS proposed to limit applicability of the law to public bodies only but not to the private bodies as well. This contradicts the policies and principles that were stated for the governance of access to information held by both public and private bodies. The GOSS seem to have deliberately removed the right to access information held by private bodies, which is necessary for legitimate reasons or for the protection of a right and the public interest. GOSS also removed and omitted the originally stated guiding principles which obliged both private and public bodies to comply with the requirements of this Bill. Instead, it amended the Bill to exclude private bodies from compliance with the provisions of this Bill. This is a serious omission and does not protect the public interest and the need to know or access information to protect a right or public interest. The law must provide for access to information held by both the private and public bodies as originally stipulated and not just applicable to public bodies as proposed by GOSS. The original guiding principles as regards access to information held by public and private bodies should be reinstated in the Right of Access to Information Bill 2009
b. The Information Commissioner role provided for in this bill should be a member of the governing Board of the Media Authority (defined in the Media Authority Bill 2009) which the SSLA Committee on Information also proposed to be renamed as the Independent Media Commission (as in original draft from AMDISS). This way, duplications of separate Commissions would be avoided, and as a member of the Governing Board of the proposed Independent Media Commission, the Information Commissioner would retain all the necessary powers defined in the Right of Information without loss but with the added benefit of the support provided by the functions, services and staff of the Media Commission or Authority.
3. Southern Sudan Broadcasting Corporation Bill 2009
a. In the appointments of members of the Board of Directors for both the SSBC and the Independent Media Commission / Authority, there should be minimal interference of the Minister or the President with the process of nomination, and every effort must be made to make the process transparent, fair and subject to public scrutiny, and with the approval of the Assembly for appointments, as well as conduct of hearings by the assembly in case of controversial removal of a member of the board.
b. The President should not on his or her own initiative remove any board member on account of a recommendation from the Minister and doing so without approval of the assembly.