South Sudan

South Sudan is the world’s youngest recognized state, having seceded from Sudan after an independence referendum in 2011 that followed upon [Page 1643]near-continuous civil war since Sudan’s independence from the United Kingdom in 1956. As one of the world’s poorest and least developed countries with an ethnically and linguistically heterogeneous population whose majority is illiterate, mass media have a particularly crucial role to play in uniting and educating and in fact creating both a nation and the state of South Sudan. Alas, the outbreak of civil war in late 2013 has not only shown the fragility of development but also taken a heavy toll on the press, which in some instances has played a role in exacerbating conflict.

This entry provides an overview of media in ...