Tuesday, September 13, 2011

South Sudan Minister warns, "go on the air or lose your license"

Idle radio and television licensees that are not on air risk their licenses being withdrawn, Hon Dr Barnaba Marial Benjamin, South Sudan Minister for Information and Broadcasting has warned. ”The licences are issued for you to operate and if you are only carrying them in your briefcases to show that you have a broadcasting station, there is no reason why we should not withdraw them”, said Dr Marial.

He explained that there are so many media houses knocking at the ministry’s doors for licences and they can’t get some of the frequencies because they have been taken by companies which are nonfunctional.

The minister issued this warning yesterday during a meeting at the ministry headquarters while addressing operational issues with the top ministry officers. Dr Marial asked the Director of Public Information in the ministry, Paul Jacob Kumbo, to write to the managers of all these “stations” to explain why they remain idle.
(Source: Government of South Sudan/R Netherlands media Network Weblog)