A group of private investors with close links to the Government of Southern Sudan (GOSS) have invested in a new radio station that will have wider reach than the existing broadcasters. Based in Juba, the new Voice of the People (VoP) will, according to its proprietors, deal mainly with developmental issues. “It will be the voice of the people of Southern Sudan and will mainly focus on the developmental challenges facing the Southern Sudanese people and ways of overcoming this. As a result, we shall be hiring professionals from all walks of life from Africa, but mainly from Southern Sudan,” says 31 year old, Benjamin Bol Yei, a shareholder of the soon to be launched station.
Cyprien Hiniolwa, an engineer who works for the United Nations and who is in charge of setting up VoP, says that the new radio station will be able to relay its content to a radius of 360 kilometres in Southern Sudan. “There is no other indigenous radio station that currently has this reach. All the radio stations currently on air serve small radiuses of about five kilometers and that is mainly in the towns of Rumbek and Juba,” he says, adding that having its content available online will enable VoP to reach an even larger audience.
VoP also plans to set up a TV station. Currently, the only Southern Sudanese TV Station, Southern Sudan TV (SSTV), is wholly owned by the government and is yet to become fully operational. Although already on air, it is currently just replaying advertisements telling what it will offer.
Full report from Ratio Magazine Kenya
http://www.ratio-magazine.com/20081223355/EAC-Regional/Southern-Sudan-New-Radio-Station-to-be-Launched-in-Early-2009.html
(R Netherlands Media Network Weblog)