Press ReleasesRadio Journalists Calm Angry Citizens in Southern Sudan
(January 30, 2008) When angry citizens looted UN food stores at a small town in conflict-ridden Southern Sudan last summer, a freshly trained radio reporting team, whose members had just begun running the station a few hours earlier, helped defuse tensions through their timely and effective coverage of the issue. The United Nations World Food Program’s (WFP) food stores were raided and looted by townspeople in the town of Malualkon, who were disgruntled that free food was only going to returnees to the area. Though relatively inexperienced, the Nhomlaau FM reporters were able to provide essential information to the community, inviting WFP staff on the air to discuss the issue, as well as the police, other local authorities and relevant international NGOs. The staff of Nhomlaau FM had just received their first round of radio journalism and production training from Internews in August. They received follow-up training in September. Internews has been working in Sudan since October 2006 from its office in Rumbek to establish radio stations in Malualkon, Leer, Kauda and Kurmuk. The first three radio stations are now operating and broadcasting to a radius of approximately 30 miles in each location. The station in Kurmuk is scheduled to begin operating early this year. “These are the first ever local language community radio stations to be set up in these remote parts of Sudan, which is emerging from one of Africa’s longest running wars,” says Internews Africa Regional Manager Alison Campbell. The project trains local reporters to provide their communities with crucial information about the peace agreement, the new constitution, national politics and a multitude of issues around the resettlement of returning refugees. Internews’ project, Radio for Peace, Democracy and Development in Southern Sudan, is funded by the Office of Transition Initiatives and the Bureau for Democracy and Governance of the US Agency for International Development. |
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