Opinion – South Sudan’s journalists have little to celebrate. The global retreat in media funding is hitting our fragile press with devastating force, forcing community radio stations to go dark, silencing voices in rural areas, and leaving journalists unemployed.
This is not simply an economic story. It is a story about whether truth itself will survive in South Sudan.
Patrick Oyet, president of the Union of Journalists of South Sudan, has warned that the loss of international support threatens the independence of our media. Without funding, reporters and editors will turn to local sponsors — many of whom are powerful political or business actors. And when the people paying your bills are the same people you may need to investigate, freedom quickly becomes a luxury you cannot afford.
Nowhere is this danger more apparent than in our community radio stations. Broadcasting in local languages, they have been lifelines for rural populations, explaining policies, warning about security threats, and giving ordinary citizens a platform to speak. Without fuel, without salaries, without maintenance for solar equipment, these stations will vanish. And with them will vanish the daily bridge between citizens and the state.
But funding cuts are not the only problem. The space for honest journalism is also being eroded by the misuse of a well-intentioned idea: conflict-sensitive reporting. In its proper form, it asks journalists in fragile environments to avoid inflaming tensions. But in today’s South Sudan, it is increasingly a code word for self-censorship.
I have watched with dismay as reports of massacres are softened into “clashes,” and state-backed violence is rebranded as “inter-communal fighting.” The victims’ stories are left untold — not because they are false, but because telling them might anger those in power. In Malakal, Nuer civilians were attacked and killed. Some of our largest media organizations, claiming to be “sensitive to the situation,” stayed silent. This is not sensitivity. This is complicity.
Meanwhile, inflammatory rhetoric from political leaders continues unchecked. Ministers openly label whole communities as “hostile.” Civilians are threatened with “necessary force.” Foreign military leaders make statements dripping with ethnic hostility. And yet, the media — cowed by financial dependency and the specter of government interference — hesitates to report the truth plainly.
This is a dangerous trajectory. A press that cannot name atrocities, cannot question power, and cannot demand justice is not building peace — it is helping to bury the truth. Peace without truth is nothing but a lie.
We must remember that press freedom is not charity. It is an investment in peace, accountability, and democratic governance. It is the public’s shield against propaganda and impunity. Without it, corruption flourishes, violence is hidden, and the cycle of abuse deepens.
The government of South Sudan must stop seeing independent media as an adversary and start seeing it as an ally in building a more stable nation. Donors, too, must reconsider their retreat. Abandoning South Sudan’s journalists now will not create peace — it will create a silence that tyrants can fill.
For my part, I call on my colleagues in the media to resist the temptation to trade truth for comfort. Journalism must be sensitive to conflict, yes. But never at the cost of truth. Never at the expense of justice.
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