Elmigdad Gebril, a veteran Sudanese international broadcaster and journalist, doesn?t mince words when asked to comment on the quality of the media in his homeland.
?There?s a lack of professionalism amongst Sudanese journalists. They take sides and are not objective. The war divided journalists just as it divided the people. Writing skills are pathetic. Reporters just copy and paste from websites; there is no regard that a story is right or wrong,? Gebril says.
He says his fervent hope is for a ?new culture of journalism? to be nurtured in Sudan: ?one that speaks of neutrality, and a media that holds officials to account for their mistakes ? not a media that is used to hide these mistakes, as is happening now?. Many people are not really qualified or trained as journalists, but they practice that profession for political reasons.?
Gebril?s convinced that a ?renaissance? within the Sudanese media won?t be possible without ?large scale? international assistance.
Another experienced Sudanese reporter, Jimmy Mulla, says journalists in the North are better trained and equipped when compared to those in the South?yet the quality of journalism in Khartoum is hurt by the tight controls that President Omar al-Bashir?s government maintains over the media.
John Tanza, who works for a network of radio stations broadcasting news into Southern Sudan from Kenya, says, ?A lot of what passes for journalism in Sudan is actually self-opinionated fluff. When somebody writes his opinion and he predicts things and all kinds of stuff, then people think, ?Oh, this guy is a journalist.? But they?re not thinking about objectivity, about balance, about fair play, about facts.?
His colleague at Sudan Radio Services, Jeremy Groce, agrees. In Sudan, he says, people generally have a ?very different impression? of what a journalist is.
?In Sudan for the most part you?ve got government ?journalists.? And what they really are, from my perspective, is public information officers. But they refer to themselves as journalists. Yet what they?re disseminating?is very controlled by the government. So they?re not necessarily interested in the truth; they?re more interested in putting out a particular message.?
Groce adds, ?Then there are those in Sudan who call themselves ?journalists,? with the understanding that this means that someone gets to express himself freely. These are people that I would refer to more accurately as columnists, people who write opinions and editorials.?
So-called ?journalists? in Sudan, he says, have little concept of the ethics involved in quality reporting.
?Their attitude is: ?I?m writing this because it?s my opinion; I heard this on the street, and I?m going to present it as fact.? So part of the problem is a lack of understanding of journalism, and part of it is lack of training in what we view as good journalism.?
Tanza says there?s little effort on the part of Sudanese journalists to investigate the political and social issues of the day.
?In the North, the reason for this is al-Bashir?s repression of the media. In the South, the reason for this is total lack of skills and training of journalists,? he explains.
And the public is suffering, says Tanza, because they aren?t being fed the truth by their media.
?I am yet to see a journalist from South Sudan who comes out with a very brilliant expose about some of the issues that we talk about. Everybody talks about corruption in South Sudan, but who is taking the lead to expose it? It?s our duty to expose those things?.?
Observers of Sudan?s media environment point out that the country is on the verge of several historic events: A national election is scheduled for 1009. Before this, a census must be held. And in 2011, Southern Sudanese are expected to vote for or against secession from Khartoum.
But, says Tanza, most local journalists are ?at a complete loss about what it takes to report on political happenings? such as these.
?They don?t even know what a census is. They have never reported on elections before. How can they be expected to educate the public if they themselves are completely ignorant about these things? How can the people make informed choices if the reporters themselves are uninformed he asks.
Tanza appeals to international journalism trainers to step in to fill what he describes as a ?dangerous information and skills vacuum? in Sudan?s media.
Spokesperson for the US government?s Sudan Programs Group Joan Mower says ?help is on the way? to improve the quality of the country?s media.