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        Silenced South Sudan Radio Station Told to Ax Political Programs

   by Philip Aleu

   The radio station in Juba that was raided by South Sudan security
   operatives over the weekend has been ordered by the government not to
   air political programs.

   The director of Bakhita Radio, Albino Tokwaro, said most of the
   station's programming is about religious and health issues - but its
   listeners are also very interested in politics and it will be hard to
   stop airing programs without some sort of political angle.

    "What is politics? The whole human being is political --  whether you
   are in a church or you are not in a church, you are a political being,"
   he said.

   Bakhita Radio is owned by the Catholic church in South Sudan. One of
   its shows is the popular morning call-in show, Wake up Juba, where
   listeners interact with guests in the studio. The guests often happen
   to be politicians.

   Michael Thon, the former host of Wake up Juba, said he was threatened
   twice after he dedicated one-and-a-half hours of a show in December
   2012 to the slaying of political commentator Isaiah Abraham. Abraham
   was gunned down by killers who, nearly two years later, have not been
   identified.

   "I asked ... do the public respect police? Do they help the police to
   give them information that would help them when they are providing
   security? Do the police respect the people? And the police leadership
   was not happy. The police came looking for me," Thon told South Sudan
   in Focus.

   "They were furious... 'Why would you wake up Juba and discuss the
   institution of the police without contacting them?'" he said.

   Thon said he offered the police the right to reply on the show. He
   thinks that was the reason he was not arrested.

   He felt afterwards as if, "I was being supervised... and I had to be
   careful on what goes on air, It has to be what truth is and it has to
   be in public interest so that i can only defend myself in the court
   law."

   Thon said the arrests of journalists and the closure of radio stations
   is an  indication that the media is operating in a hostile environment.
   But he urged journalists to continue to abide by the rules of their
   profession and report impartially, objectively, accurately and fairly.

   "They should continue to be the bridge between the people and the
   government," he said.

   Presidential spokesman Ateny Wek Ateny told South Sudan in Focus on
   Monday that the story that led to the closure of Bakhita Radio and the
   detention of four staff members, including news editor David Ocen,
   breached national security because it blamed government forces for
   triggering fresh fighting in Jonglei and Unity states by attacking
   rebel positions.

   Three of the Bakhita staff members were only held for a few hours but
   Ocen remained in detention for four days. Bakhita Radio was still off
   the air Wednesday - the keys to the station are reportedly still in the
   hands of national security officials.

   Tokwaro said when the station goes back on the air, editors will
   carefully scrutinize stories to avoid the possibility of them being
   perceived as a threat to national security.

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   [1]http://www.voanews.com/content/south-sudan-media-bakhita-radio-stop-
   political-programs/2422181.html

References

   1. http://www.voanews.com/content/south-sudan-media-bakhita-radio-stop-political-programs/2422181.html