The Cross Border Network (CBN) is an initiative of media houses from Uganda and South Sudan. It aims to promote human rights, to empower civil society, to support peace building by informing the people in an unbiased, conflict sensitive, gender balanced and fact-checked way.
Currently CBN is registered as company by guarantee. But it is working towards acquiring its full status as NGO (in both countries).
CBN media network is currently made up of 22 media houses. Most of them are radio stations on the two sides of the border between Uganda and South Sudan. The members of the network share media content on cross-border topics targeting South Sudanese refugees, host communities in Uganda and internally displaced persons in South Sudan.
Between 2013 and 2017, Over one million South Sudanese refugees have been seeking shelter in Uganda, escaping the armed conflict in South Sudan.
In order to inform the affected people in both countries – refugees, IDPs, host communities – and to reduce tensions, the coordinated media outlets are committed to report according to international journalistic standards and have signed an MoU with CBN. CBN plans to train the journalists as well as media managers on refugee topics and conflict sensitive reporting.