The governor of Western Bahr el Ghazal State, Sarah Cleto Rial, while addressing the World Press Freedom Day celebrations in Wau on Tuesday urged journalists across the country to be politically neutral.

She said despite the obligation for the media to be impartial, some journalists were compromised by some political parties.

“I am a supporter of the press. I like the media and I always stand with the media. There has to be free law to information,” Governor Cleto said. “During the period or the implementation of the peace agreement, we need to do a lot of dissemination of information to our people at the grassroots and everywhere.”

She appreciated the role the media played during the Covid-19 pandemic in educating the public and said the media should not be used to attack personalities or defame people.

“In the past, we had a Covid-19 and there was a lockdown and children were not going to school. Governments used the media for the education of children and we appreciate all the media. All the coverage and equipment that we have is not enough and we need to expand coverage,” she added.

Governor Cleto cautioned scribes against taking press freedom and freedom of speech for granted.

“When we talk of freedom of speech, it should not be taken for granted and it should not be taken out of context to the extent that the freedom is used to defame personalities,” she said. “The media has to be impartial. The media should not take sides and I am referring to our current period of the transitional government of national unity in South Sudan.”

“I know South Sudan has been a one-party system for a quite long time and maybe the media has been siding with one party because it has been a one-party system, but now there are so many political parties and the media has to be impartial,” she concluded.