Media rights organisations have demanded the release of six journalists imprisoned by South Sudanese authorities after a video purportedly showing President Salva Kiir peeing on himself was leaked.
The National Security Service agents took the South Sudan Broadcasting Corporation workers into custody on Tuesday, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. The group got this information from news reports and other people who knew about the situation.
In a statement released late Friday, the New York-based CPJ said that they are looking into a video that went viral on social media in December and was said to show Kiir urinating on himself at a formal event.
The arrests are consistent with “a history of security personnel using arbitrary detention anytime officials deem coverage unfavourable,” according to Muthoki Mumo, a spokesman for CPJ in sub-Saharan Africa.
By letting them go without any conditions, the government should make sure that the six SSBC employees can work without being threatened with detention or more harassment.
The Union of Journalists of South Sudan also asked for a “quick end” to the investigation into the six people, who it said were suspected of “knowing about the public release of “a particular footage.”
“Let authorities expedite an administrative or legal process to address the issue in a fair, transparent manner and in line with the law,” it said in a statement on Friday. “If there is a prima facie case of professional misconduct or violation,”
South Sudan broke away from Sudan in July 2011, and Kiir, who was 71 at the time, was in charge of the country’s move to independence.
Since then, though, the youngest country on Earth has gone from one crisis to the next, dealing with terrible wars, political unrest, natural disasters, and hunger.
