Journalists trained on constitutional reporting in Bor, Yambio and Wau

UNESCO in partnership with the Union of Journalists of South Sudan (UJOSS) and community-based radio stations in Bor, Yambio and Wau have conducted capacity-training workshops for at least seventy Journalists on conflict-sensitive and gender-responsive reporting, ethics and accurate reporting on the constitution-making process.

As South Sudan implements chapter VI of the Revitalized Agreement on the Resolution of the Conflict in South Sudan, the media has a key role in ensuring that the voices of everyone are heard, ensure public participation and engagement during the process. Indeed, Article 6.13 says, "the process of the permanent constitution making shall be led and owned by the people of South Sudan". Hence, UNESCO and the Union of Journalists of South Sudan launched a series of the capacity building workshops.

At the workshops, Mr. Patrick Oyet, Chairperson of the Union of Journalists of South Sudan (UJOSS), encouraged journalists to focus on positive stories to restore hope as well as prioritize professionalism at all times as they undertake their work.

Mr. Mohammad Chuol Peter, Director-General of the State Ministry of Information in Jonglei, appreciated UNESCO and UJOSS for the outreach programme and encouraged journalists to use local languages as they air programmes on the constitutional process to ensure participation and understanding of the issues by everyone.

Hon. Isaac Murusa Timon, State Minister for Information, Western Equatorial State urged journalists in Yambio to use the training extended to help build their professional career and use the information obtained to pass on messages of peace. 'It is because of peace, that children are going to school and agriculture is going on in the State' said Hon. Timon.

Hon. Anthony Charles, Acting Minister of Information, Western Bahr el Ghazal State congratulated UNESCO and UJOSS for conducting a capacity building workshop for the journalists in the State. Hon. Charles stated, "As the State government, we encourage UJOSS and UNESCO to continue strengthening the journalists' capacity through training and we appeal to media institutions and partners to offer training opportunities that can see to it that state journalists also access further capacity building opportunities abroad."

Ms. Doreen Loboka, UNESCO Communication and Information Specialist, urged journalists to propagate peace through good writing. "I urge all journalists across the country to use the knowledge acquired to promote peace and educate the public about the constitution-making process", she said. "I appeal to the state government to create simple mechanisms for easy access to information."

The activities were made possible through support from the UN Peace Building Fund programme implemented by UNESCO, UN Women and UNDP.