Freedom of the press under threat.
Six journalists have been arrested in South Sudan after a video emerged that allegedly shows President Salva Kiir urinating on him during an official ceremony, says the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), which is demanding their release.
The state-run television journalists were detained by National Security Service agents on Tuesday, according to New York-based CPJ, citing local media and other sources familiar with the matter, in a statement released Friday evening.
They are under investigation after the broadcast of a video, which went viral in December on social networks, which would show the 71-year-old head of state urinating on him during an official ceremony.
“Authorities should unconditionally release journalists”
The arrests reflect "a pattern of security forces resorting to arbitrary detention when officials believe media coverage is unfavorable," said CPJ Sub-Saharan Africa Representative Muthoko Mumo.
"Authorities should unconditionally release journalists and ensure they can work without being intimidated or threatened with arrest."
The South Sudan Journalists Syndicate also called for the "quick end" of the investigations into the six journalists, suspected "of having knowledge of the dissemination of a specific sequence (of the video) to the public".
“If there has been malpractice or a breach,” authorities must “deal with it in a fair, transparent manner and in accordance with the law,” he continued in a statement.
A country plagued by chaos
After gaining independence from Sudan in 2011, South Sudan descended into a civil war between sworn enemies Riek Machar and Salva Kiir, which left nearly 400,000 dead and millions displaced between 2013 and 2018.
A peace agreement signed in 2018 provides for the principle of power-sharing within a government of national unity, with Salva Kiir as president and Riek Machar as vice-president.
But it remains largely unenforced, due to ongoing feuds between the two rivals, leaving the country plagued by violence and chronic instability.
The UN and the international community regularly accuse South Sudanese leaders of maintaining a status quo, stoking violence, suppressing political freedoms and embezzling public funds.
