My following letter was published this week in South Sudan’s newest newspaper, The National Today, and the editors both published my photo without permission or accreditation and edited out my criticisms of the country’s brutish government. Furthermore, some of the edits below don’t make sense but I’ll leave them in for your reading pleasure. Welcome to South Sudan:
“South Sudan continues to suffer from immense suffering amongst its people. After the joy of the 2011 independence vote, the population deserves far better. I lived in South Sudan in 2015 and found a situation that routinely ignored the most basic humanitarian standards; a number of ills are meted at will. Serious and accountable reporting would help to account for such in an up-coming society. Name the ills and Highlight them to help the country move forward. Demand action against those involved. South Sudan has remarkable people with focus to the country. Courageous reporting could be one step towards taking the country out of its current crisis.”
Antony Loewenstein, independent journalist and Guardian columnist
My original letter is here:
“South Sudan continues to suffer from immense suffering amongst its people. After the joy of the 2011 independence vote, the population deserves far better. I lived in South Sudan in 2015 and found a political and military leadership that routinely ignored the most basic humanitarian standards, murdering, raping and injuring at will. Serious and accountable journalism would hold such perpetrators to account. Name them. Shame them. Highlight how they are making money from the ongoing war. Demand action against those involved in killing journalists. South Sudan has remarkable people who are being abused by their own government. Courageous reporting could be one step towards taking the country out of its current crisis.”