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Capacity building of Union of Journalists of South Sudan (UJOSS) in ethics and safety

Year when project approved: 
2014
Approved budget: 
US$25 000.00

The impact of years of conflict is still evident in nearly every aspect of South Sudanese society. Although great efforts are underway to promote peace, security, reconstruction and development, these processes will be difficult without the establishment of a free media to create an atmosphere of peaceful co-existence and to institutionalize a culture of democracy. In particular, serious issues exist concerning the safety of journalists and media professionals and the impunity of those committing such crimes. Despite a constitution that guarantees press freedom, many journalists have been arrested and harassed for their work and many more exercise self-censorship to avoid such repercussions.
 
Two new bills offer the potential to address these safety and impunity issues and to highlight the importance of high ethical standards in the media. However, inadequate professional training prevents many journalists from being aware of these laws. Although Juba University offers training for working journalists, most journalists live far away and hence cannot benefit from the courses. Training opportunities are therefore necessary in other parts of South Sudan.
 
The project aims to address this training gap by running a 3-day workshop for 20 journalists from Unity State and another 20 from Northern Bahr El Ghazal State on journalism ethics and safety of journalists. Its purpose is for South Sudanese journalists and associated media personnel not to be subject to arbitrary detention, intimidation, threats, harassment or surveillance and for journalists not to routinely self-censor out of fear of punishment or harassment. The project also aims for the confidentiality of sources to be protected in law and respected in practice. The project is in line with the Country Action Plan on implementing the UN Plan of Action on the Safety of Journalists and the Issue of Impunity in South Sudan.

Documents
Full project description: 
SouthSudan_project_proposal1.pdf
Project details
IPDC Bureau meeting nº: 
58

Implementation status :

Project evaluated:

Project scope:

IPDC Priority:

Budget

Source of funds:

Beneficiary
Beneficiary name: 
Union Of Journalists Of South Sudan
Beneficiary description: 

The Union of Journalists of South Sudan was formed in 2004 and is a professional body of registered and practicing journalists throughout South Sudan. Its members are drawn from the private, community and government owned mass media houses and free lanced journalists within the country. The governing body is the UJOSS general assembly composed of all the registered members. It delegates its authority to a democratically elected Executive Committee composed of 15 members. The committee is elected every 3 years and it is responsible for provision of leadership, direction and policy guidance to the management team of UJOSS and reports the same during the annual general meeting or special general meetings that are held as the need arises. UJOSS derives its income from membership registration and subscription and development partners who fund its projects. In the long term objective of UJOSS is planning to publish a newspaper (The People’s Voice) as one of the sources of income to sustain UJOSS internal activities. UJOSS is the national focal point for the implementation of the UN Plan of Action on the Safety of Journalists and the Issue of Impunity. The Country Action Plan, elaborated in cooperation with a range of partner institutions, foresees under Outcome 3: The work of international non-governmental organizations, including professional associations and media is reinforced and also harmonized with the UN system at national level. Training is foreseen within this outcome.

Beneficiary country:

Beneficiary phone: 
+249-957-100-855, +256-477-100-855

Beneficiary type:

Location and contacts
UNESCO

UNESCO Field Office:

Project contacts: 

Mr Oliver Modi Philip (Chairperson)

Project place: 
South Sudan

Project region:

Follow-up and achievments
Summary of the project implementation: 

Three-day (February 11–13, 2015) training of the UJOSS Media Observatory Committees (MOCs) was carried out in Western Bahr el Ghazal town of Wau with the participation of 25 members of MOCs. The MOCs members were invited from the states of Northern Bahr El Ghazal, Warrap and Western Bahr El Ghazal. The workshop was opened and closed by the Western Bahr El Ghazal State Minister of Information Hon. Mary Carolino. During the closing ceremony, the Minister thanked UNESCO-IPDC for the support it gave to UJOSS in order to conduct the training for journalists in the three states. She also promised to support journalists in her state, especially with regard to harassment, threats, arrest, assault and intimidation. The training focused on how best the UJOSS MOCs carry out their roles in support of the safety and security of Journalists, combat impunity through monitoring and reporting journalists abuses including harassment, intimidation, arrest, detention, confiscation of Professional Equipment and newspapers, monitor hate speech, foster freedom of expression and improve on professionalism. Thus, the training included the following areas; • How to Identify incidents against journalists and their perpetrators; • Report such incidents to the SBO/Head Office; • Make dialogue with the authorities at State levels in respond to violation of journalists rights Create better working relationships with news resources; • Understand the basic knowledge and skills in Journalism; • Put in practice the skills and knowledge acquired; • Respond to journalism principals and ethics for professional reporting and publication. The training was conducted in a participatory manner, which enabled participants to contribute and have more understanding of the topics delivered both in English and in simple Arabic languages. This was followed by the establishment and training of three media observatory committees (MOCs) Northern Bahr El Ghazal, Warrap and Western Bahr El Ghazal. With establishment of the 3 MOCs in the 3 remaining states,10 Media observatory committees in all the 10 states have now been established, capacitated and operationalised.