Photo: Journalists from 25 media houses across South Sudan participate in a two-day training session in Juba, focusing on the media's role in citizen participation. - Photo credit: Moses Awan/Eye Radio, April 23, 2024

Twenty-five journalists from various media outlets in South Sudan are currently undergoing training on the pivotal role of media in bolstering citizen participation.

The two-day training focuses on breaking barriers that impede access to health and education-related information.

Eye Media in partnership with UNICEF, is conducting the training, bringing together journalists and media stakeholders from diverse institutions across the country.

Eye Media is a national media organization that manages Eye Radio.

The training aims to improve access to comprehensive information and strengthen the feedback loop regarding health, nutrition, sanitation, child protection, education, and emergency programs supported by UNICEF and its partners.

In her remarks, Mary Denis, the Director of Health Education and Promotion at the National Ministry of Health hails journalists for their incredible role in disseminating information to the public.

She encourages them to inform communities stating that by reporting, journalists are contributing to ensuring positive behaviour change in the communities, saving lives.

This is because Mary says information enables them to make life-saving decisions for themselves and their families.

“We in the Ministry of Health, acknowledge your responsible journalism. We know that you have a very great role in passing information to the communities,” said Mary.

“Your role is to strengthen citizens’ participation in closing the feedback loop and also access to integrated information in so many areas: health, nutrition, wash, child protection, education and even emergency,” she said.

“By reporting, you are also ensuring positive behaviour change in the communities which is a life-saving practice for informed decision-making.

“When communities are aware, then they will be able to make decisions for themselves and their families’ wellbeing”.

Kerebino Dut from Abyei FM, one of the participants in the training says the knowledge from the training will help his media house to collect feedback from the audience to improve their content.

“This training will help so much because the knowledge we are getting here will help us,” said Dut.

“We will be able to conduct feedback collection, determine how to use the feedback to improve our work and enable us to produce new content,” he said.

“At the same time, people (Journalists) who have received this training will go and train other Journalists at the stations”.

Voice of Freedom’s Program Manager in Magwi, Ongwech William Ating hopes the training will better their reporting on health-related issues.

“This training is very important for us who are brought here as Journalists and media stakeholders,” said Ongwech.

“There are a lot of loopholes when it comes to putting issues and when it comes to the issue of getting feedback from the listeners or our audience,” he said.

“There are times that we may not even know what exactly they want or what we are doing and how it impacts them but in this training.

“We will be able to understand and we have started understanding that we need to keep intact with them and in this training, we get much on health-related issues.”