Journalists boycott SPLM press conference in Juba after disagreement with organizers

JUBA – At least ten (10) South Sudanese journalists on Tuesday boycotted a press conference conducted by the country’s ruling SPLM party after former SPLM-IO official, Wesley Samuel, who resigned from the main armed opposition group, SPLM-IO, in September, decided to join the ruling SPLM faction.

Speaking to Sudans Post this afternoon from the country’s capital Juba, Wake Samuel Wodu, a freelance journalist, said they boycotted the conference due to disagreement over where to sit and record audio from.

“We what happened simply was that it was unexpected anyhow, there was no other plan to boycott or wake away from the conference. What happened was that journalists did not come in term with organizers of the conference because journalists were invited to a press conference and when they came they could not be made to sit where they could record the audio confidentially,” he told Sudans Post reporter.

Wodu said felt disrespected and not accorded the environment to do their work confidently.

“Instead next to where we are supposed to record is again where a number of officials sat and we were made to sit behind which always makes journalists get good quality recording. So when journalists could not come to terms the organizers it was what made them to away because they felt that there was no respect for them and they were not accorded the environment to do their work confidently,” he said