The Ministry of Information, Communication Technology and Postal Services on Wednesday launched a workshop on the accreditation of national journalists and stakeholders to discussion misinformation and disinformation.
The workshop brought together media practitioners from the government and the private institutions, press secretaries, information officers and members of the diplomatic corps.
The Deputy Minister for ICT and Postal Services, Jacob Maiju Korok, said guaranteeing the freedom of expression and opening up of the civic space was an obligation of the government.
He assured the media of access to all the political campaigns during the election.
Though dissatisfied with the number of the accredited journalists, Korok encouraged them to uphold the journalistic code of ethics.
So far, only 116 journalists have been accredited, with only 30 of them female.
The Managing Director of the Media Authority, Elijah Alier Kuai, pleaded with media houses to prioritize the accredited journalists over the unaccredited ones, to allow a professional media to reign.
The Secretary General of the Union of Journalists in South Sudan, Daniel Majak, appealed to the Media Authority to consider accrediting those who have been practicing journalism for a long time without certificates, arguing that some with over 10 years’ experience were now well grounded in the job.
The South Sudan Broadcasting Corporation (SSBC) Managing Director, Magok Chilim, who was among the key speakers, said accrediting people who do not have media background and certificates compromised the ethics of journalism, urging that the profession be respected.
The Director General of National Communication Authority, Napoleon Adok Gai, announced that the government was already working to launch the Computer Incident Response (CIR) later this month and thereafter partner with Meta Facebook to help clear all the fake social media accounts and internet websites in the country.
Meta Facebook and the government, said Gai, have already began training the government information officers on how to manage the state websites and social accounts.