Thursday, November 10, 2011

South Sudan under fire over journalist's arrest

(Nov 2011,The Africa Report)--The South Sudan government has come under pressure and criticism over the jailing of a journalist and the closure of a newspaper that wrote about the president's daughter's marriage.

Critics claim the charge the journalist faces is trivial and does not warrant the arrest. The journalist, Ngor Garang was arrested last Wednesday on allegations of infringing on the privacy of the South Sudanese President Salva Kiir after he wrote a story on a marriage between the president's daughter and an Ethiopian man.

The organisations have appealed to the Human Rights Commission and the Ministry of Justice to intervene and assist in the release of the journalist. Gregory Taban, who leads Freedom For All, one of the organisations fighting for Garang's release, said they were in contatct with senior officials to ensure the journalist's release.

"We are fighting hard to see that he is released as soon as possible. We are contacting some big shots in government to help us get him released," he said.

Another organisation, the Community Empowerment for Progress Organization (CEPO), said it had requested the government of South Sudan to release Garang saying there was no valid reason for his continued detention.

It has also released a statement in which it said that arresting journalists violates South Sudan's constitution
"The government should stop arresting journalists. The arrest of journalists is a violation of article number 24 sub section one enshrined in the South Sudan Transitional Constitution Bill of Rights on the freedom of expression and media. It should not be violated," read the statement.

The Deputy Information and Broadcating Minister, Atem Yak Atem, has also been quoted in local media announcing the closure of Destiny, an English version of the Arabic Al-masir newspaper.

Garang is an employee of Destiny, the newspaper that initially wrote about the marriage of the president's daughter. The deputy minister said the newspaper had been closed indefinitely for invading the privacy of the President's family.

"I think there's no room for the article that appeared in the Destiny newspaper, it was uncalled for. It went into what we call invasion of privacy," Yak Atem said.
Source: The Africa Report

Related topics:
South Sudan President’s Daughter Marries Ethiopian

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