Six journalists in Southern Sudan were detained due to the circulation of images showing President Salva Kiir appearing to get wet at an official event, the national union of journalists said on Saturday (7).
Footage from December showed a dark stain spread across the 71-year-old president’s gray trousers as he sang along to the national anthem at a road opening event.
The video was never aired on television, but it later circulated on social media. The journalists, who work for the state-owned South Sudan Broadcasting Corporation, were detained on Tuesday and Wednesday, said Patrick Oyet, president of the Journalists Union of South Sudan.
They “are suspected of having knowledge of how the video of the president urinating on himself was released,” he told Reuters. South Sudanese Information Minister Michael Makuei and National Security Service spokesman David Kumuri did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Kiir has been president since South Sudan gained independence in 2011. Government officials have repeatedly denied rumors circulating on social media that he is unwell. The country has been embroiled in conflict for much of the last decade.
The journalists arrested are cameramen Joseph Oliver and Mustafa Osman; video editor Victor Lado; contributor Jacob Benjamin; and Cherbek Ruben and Joval Toombe from the control room, Oyet said.
“We are concerned that those who are being held now have been held longer than the law says,” he added. By law, authorities in South Sudan are allowed to detain suspects for just 24 hours before bringing them before a judge.
The incident “matches a pattern of security personnel resorting to arbitrary detention whenever authorities find the coverage unfavorable,” said Sub-Saharan Africa representative for the Committee to Protect Journalists, Muthoki Mumo.
(Editing: Frances Kerry)
Source: CNN Brasil
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