information mainly on the peace process. Replacing it was a focus on proper community radio, with reporters embedded and interested in the lives of the nearby people.
I work with four stations in the CRN, each with a crew of seven. The stations are Leer (Naath FM), which is in Unity State; Malualkon (Nhomlaau FM), which is in an area known as Northern Bahr el Ghazal; Nasir (Sobat FM), which is in Upper Nile and near the border with Ethiopia; and Turalei (Mayardit FM), which is in Warrap State and is near one of the most disputed areas of the country--Abyei. Each of these stations is near the new border between the Sudans. And each station was built to cover more than 60 square kilometers, far greater than a normal community radio footprint.
Training people to report in a post-conflict environment presents a lot of challenges. Stories are often from the local language to English and back. The journalists’ skill multilayered with nuances that are lost in translation sets also varied; some had been working at the station for years, others had only just been hired.
I took a mentoring approach – focusing on the basics of news writing and reporting. Some of the previous For some I would be their first trainer and for others, I would be their fifth. trainers were still working, so I helped them to build on the work that they had done.
There were basic problems, such as story identification and clip selection. Script writing was also a challenge because the scripts had to be done first in English and later translated into the local languages (Dinka, Nuer and Arabic).
There were also cultural storytelling techniques I had to understand. In English, we like our sentences short and to the point. In radio, the clips for news are short—nothing longer than 15 seconds in the U.S., and maybe 25 in the UK (both radio markets where I have worked). However, for the Nuer and Dinka staff, those timings didn't work, as they cut short information that was vital to the listeners. As one journalist explained to me in Malualkon, "When we hear the news, we like to hear all of what happened. People want to know that the person hear[sic] a noise, got out of his bed and went outside to find the men stealing the cattle."
While in radio there is room for the descriptive, in news bulletins, there isn’t much the room for it. So it was a matter of teaching the reporters how to find a balance.
But stories do get told; and told well.
And of course, there were the physical and technical challenges to getting stories out – from downed generators to battery failures on recorders in the middle
of interviews (which gave me the opportunity to teach them the vital importance of always carrying a notebook and taking contemporaneous notes); and the weather, which would render roads impassable and telephone communication void.
But stories do get told, and told well.The journalists and I are learning how to how to fit robust news and journalism into a country where press protection is non-existent. Indeed, one of the journalists at the station in Leer has been arrested twice during my time here. I have taught them how to ask officials tough questions without
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Leer has been arrested twice during my time here. I have taught them how to ask officials tough questions without causing offense (couch it in the language of helping the community and deliver it with a smile); to use the power of radio’s bully pulpit to advocate for changes to improve the lives of local people.
Radio journalists from South Sudan weather Mother Nature and technical problems to deliver news to their listeners.