Condolences Pour In For Veteran Journalist Edward Terso
Veteran journalist Edward Lodu Terso passed on Friday in Khartoum, Sudan after succumbing to a long illness that saw him undergo three surgeries this year.
News of Terso’s death, which was announced on the South Sudan Journalists WhatsApp group, took the entire media fraternity by surprise. Condolences continue to pour in for the later Terso, who many describe as a funny and hardworking journalist.
“He was one of the greatest journalists I knew. The entire South Sudanese media fraternity will dearly miss you brother.” Wrote Okello Peter who first met Edward Terso in Nairobi, Kenya in 2015 when he was attached with the German weekly magazine Development Plus Cooperation (D+C) a Deutsche Welle, based in Bonn, as South Sudan correspondent.
Okello, who now works with the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) at the Public Information Office says Terso was a charismatic, enthusiastic, and determined journalist.
“He is an oasis of media development in South Sudan,” Okello told The Insider.
Columnist William Sunday D Tor, who writes for The Dawn English and Al-Maugif Arabic newspaper says Terso has been a human rights defender throughout his career, especially at the then Khartoum Monitor, now Juba Monitor newspaper.
“His writing was on human rights just and freedom for all oppressed before the signing of the CPA.” Said Tor referring to the period after the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement in 2005, a peace agreement that led to South Sudan’s secession from Sudan later in 2011 through a referendum.
Terso served as an Editor and Columnist for the Juba Monitor English Daily newspaper during late Alfred Taban Logune’s era as the Editor-In-Chief of the paper. He later worked for Sudan Radio Service as an editor between 2007 and 2009.
Those who worked with him then like Pascal Ladu told The Insider that; “Edward was a great man.” “At the South Sudan Radio, he was a kind editor. And we worked collaboratively as a team.” Ladu said.
Chuol Jany, an editor at The Radio Community, a network of six community radio stations funded by Internews, would come to know Terso as his savior at a time when his life was at risk due to his journalistic activities.
Jany says Terso defended and fought for him and gave him a membership to the journalists’ union even when he was being threatened by enemies of progress.
“The loss of Terso is a setback to the media industry in South Sudan. Terso has been my good friend, a man that I will continue to remember for his solid stand with me during my arrested in 2014 while doing my profession. Terso was a mentor and rescue worker of our time. His well vast knowledge in media practices will really be missed. My prayers and condolences to his family.” Jany added.
Terso fell sick in Juba and was rushed to Khartoum for treatment in December last year. Since then he remained bedridden at a hospital in Khartoum where he battled the diseaese for months before he finally succumbed to the illness and passed on.
His body is currently at a Mortuary in Khartoum after some legal procedures, according to Michael Atit, a VOA Correspondent in Khartoum who has been updating journalists on the funeral arrangements.
Terso’s cousin, Simon Mogga, who has been with him all along since December says family members in Juba are yet to decide whether the deceased body should be laid to rest in Sudan or South Sudan.
Terso left South Sudan Radio (current South Sudan Broadcasting Corporation – SSBC) for the Census Commission as a communications and publicity officer. At the time of his death Terso was the secretary-general of the Union of Journalists in South Sudan (UJOSS).
Journalists have come in unison to raise about Sudanese pounds 50,000 (about 160 US Dollars) for his family to foot the mortuary and a casket bill in Khartoum.
Maal Maker Thiong, Presidential Press Unit cameraman who offered $100 described Terso as a hero, a teacher, a brother, and a mentor.
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