User:J.K.Herms/drft art on splmtoday

SPLMToday identifies itself as the “official website for the SPLM & SPLA.”

SPLMToday.com has characteristics of a phishing site. The editors’ names are not given. The authoritativeness of the site hasn’t been verified. Personal information and donations have been solicited.

(SPLM and SPLA, the Sudan People's Liberation Movement and Sudan People's Liberation Army, are the armed forces and the governing party of the Republic of South Sudan.)

[''Drft. update to new SPLMToday art.'']

History
The splmtoday.com domain name was registered by G.L. Loro, Amsterdam, on October 24, 2003. SPLMToday in its current form began publishing on March 25, 2004, identifying itself as the “official website for the SPLM & SPLA.” The site it replaced had been “taken down by persons of malicious intent.”

The site’s home page has invited visitors to send donations (2004–2005) or to disclose their names and e-mail addresses (2005–2011).

By the time South Sudan became independent, the SPLMToday.com site, representing itself as “Official website of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement … © 2011 [by] Official SPLM Site,” was receiving nearly half of all web traffic from search queries for “SPLM.”

Editors’ names and credentials
An editor’s name is stated in the first issue: “The new [2004] website … hopefully shall be kept updated regularly by Lt. Col. Tulio Ayaho Odong of the SPLA.”

Current editors are not identified.

SPLMToday doesn′t disclose whether any editor or “member of [the editor′s] immediate family” has a “significant financial interest” in or affiliation or relationship with any person or entity discussed by the editor (other than SPLM itself) or any competing person or entity.

Editorial policy
SPLMToday’s mission is to publish news related to “SPLM and GOSS” (Government of South Sudan) and to “connect [Sudanese] communities in [the] diaspora and at home.”

General
The copyright-management information notice identifies the copyright owner as “Official SPLM Site.”

The original (2004) site was sponsored in part by SPLM Benelux Chapter, Hague, Neth.

Donations and personal information (users’ names and e-mail addresses) have been solicited by the publisher. See, e.g., SPLMToday Home Page (2005) (“Donations … Help the Cause (business: donations[at]splmtoday.com) (currency code: EUR) (item: SPLMToday Website) {Make a Donation} (alt: Make payments with PayPal) Donate and help us make a difference!”). No information from required company filings or other evidence that SPLMToday is not a phishing site is provided.

Other publications
Forum

Accuracy and verifiability
The Contacts page indicates that “SPLM HQ [Headquarters] Southern Sector” can be asked for further information or clarification about material published on the site. An e-mail address (at splmtoday.com) and a Skype name are given.

Popularity
Of all Web searches for “SPLM” during the month (June 2011) immediately before South Sudan became independent, 48% led the user to SPLMToday.