Sudan Media Sustainability Index (MSI)
March 8, 2012
About the MSI
IREX designed the MSI to measure the strength and viability of any country's media sector. The MSI considers all the factors that contribute to a media system—the quality of journalism, effectiveness of management, the legal environment supporting freedom of the press, and more—to arrive at scores on a scale ranging between 0 and 4. These scores represent the strength of the media sector components and can be analyzed over time to chart progress (or regression) within a country. Additionally, countries or regions may be compared to one another. IREX currently conducts the MSI in 80 countries, and began studying Africa in 2006.
MSI Overview | Africa | Asia | Europe & Eurasia | Middle East & North Africa
Download Complete Sudan Chapter (PDF): 2010 | 2009 | 2008 | 2006/7
MSI Sudan-2010 Introduction
Overall Country Score: 1.68
At the time of the 2010 MSI panel in Sudan, the people in the Southern Sudan, journalists included, were anxiously awaiting the outcome of a January 2011 referendum to determine the political future of Sudan. The MSI panelists predicted that when Southern Sudan becomes independent, as expected, the Sudanese in this region would enjoy greater freedom of speech and press than those in the North. The South will be politically and economically independent, thanks to oil lying beneath this part of Sudan.
That moment will be the climax of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) signed between the SPLA and the Khartoum government in 2005 to end Sudan's long-running civil war, in which it was agreed that the people of the South will determine self-governance through a referendum. However, some Sudanese fear that development in the Independent Southern Sudan may be affected by the corrupt leadership, which, unless checked, could lead to greater suffering for the people than under a united Sudan.
For now, the media, especially independent/private entities, continue to operate under difficult conditions in the North, while in the South there is relative media freedom. Acts by security agencies to intimidate, harass, and torture members of the media is the order of the day, more so in the North, but to a certain extent in South Sudan. As the year drew to a close in December, the authorities began stepping up their harassment and arrests of journalists and human-rights defenders ahead of the referendum.
While such acts persist, journalists do occasionally speak out against the intimidation, through medai advocacy and professional organizations. Efforts by the media to fight for their rights have yielded little, but the struggle continues through several media organizations. In the South, consultation with journalists on the proposed new media bill is still undergoing review by the media associations.
On a practical level, the media in the North are generally far better off than their counterparts in South Sudan in terms of infrastructure, investment, pay levels, and training, but much needs to be done to organize the profession in the region.
