The national journalists union reported on Saturday that six journalists had been imprisoned in South Sudan due to the distribution of video showing President Salva Kiir appearing to wet himself at a public function.
At a road commissioning event in December, the 71-year-old president stood for the national anthem while wearing grey pants that had a dark stain running down them. The video was shared on social media after it was never broadcast on television.
According to Patrick Oyet, head of the South Sudan Union of Journalists, the journalists, who are employed by the government-run South Sudan Broadcasting Corporation, were taken into custody on Tuesday and Wednesday.
He told Reuters that they “are accused of knowing how the video of the president peeing himself came out.”
Michael Makuei, the South Sudanese minister of information, and David Kumuri, the spokesman for the National Security Service, did not immediately respond to calls for comment. Since South Sudan’s independence in 2011, Kiir has presided. Government representatives have frequently refuted social media rumors that he is ill. The previous ten years have seen significant strife in the nation.
According to Oyet, the imprisoned journalists include Cherbek Ruben and Joval Toombe from the control room, as well as camera operators Joseph Oliver and Mustafa Osman, video editor Victor Lado, contributor Jacob Benjamin, and Cherbek Ruben.
He continued, “We are worried because individuals who are currently jailed have lasted longer than the law says.
According to the law, suspects can only be held by South Sudanese authorities for 24 hours before they are brought before a judge.
According to Muthoki Mumo, the sub-Saharan Africa representative for the Committee to Protect Journalists, the event “fits a trend of security forces using arbitrary imprisonment whenever officials find coverage unflattering.”
Source: Reuters
