South Sudan's English Daily Newspaper
"We Dare where others fear"
By Awan Achiek
Journalists not accredited by the South Sudan Media Authority have been barred from covering the Transitional National Legislative, according to Oliver Mori Benjamin, Chairperson of the Parliamentary Committee for Information and Communication.
Mori said on Monday that the directive was issued by the media regulator to parliament.
“We have been served with a letter from the authority that any journalist who is not accredited will not be allowed to cover sittings of the parliament, and not only of the parliament even in all the government institutions,” Mori said.
He said that security officers at parliament would implement the guidelines issued by the media authority.
“They are all about 116 journalists but I can see the number is great so as of tomorrow we are going to implement this. Any journalist coming to the parliament will be required to produce his accreditation card,” Mori said.
He disclosed that they have been served with a list of names of all the accredited journalists in the country.
Mori noted that accredited journalists would be subjected to verification process for authenticity to ensure that the details captured on the security code on their press cards match their particulars.
“Those who don’t have that press cards we will tell them to go back to the media authority to get that card. I think this is a very important for our journalists so that we all move orderly,” he said.
He encouraged practicing journalists who have not yet acquired the accreditation to apply for it.
The media authority is regulatory institution tasked with overseeing media operations in the country. It has so far accredited over 116 journalists.
The accreditation aims to certify recognition of working journalists and other qualified media practitioners.
Those eligible include national journalists, editors-in-chief, managing editors and copy editors, freelance journalists, student journalists and trainees, foreign journalists and cartoonists.
