Six journalists in South Sudan were arrested this Saturday (7), after a video showing the president, Salva Kiir, 71, apparently urinating in his pants at an official event. In it, the leader, leaning on a cane, seems to be concentrating on the national anthem playing while a dark stain spreads across his pants. It’s only when a puddle forms on the floor that he looks down.
The moment was captured by a camera from the state TV station, but it never aired. According to the leader of the national union of journalists, Patrick Oyet, the arrested journalists are accused of having knowledge of how the video was leaked. Information Minister Michael Makuei and national security service spokesman David Kumuri did not respond to Reuters requests for comment.
Kiir has been the country’s president since the south became an autonomous region from the rest of Sudan in 2010. Independence came after a referendum on the total separation between the south and north of the territory, a consequence of peace agreements that, signed in January 2005, ended more than 20 years of war between the two areas. Authorities have repeatedly denied rumors that he has health problems.
The journalists arrested are camera operators Joseph Oliver and Mustafa Osman, video editor Victor Lado, collaborator Jacob Benjamin, and control room operators Cherbek Ruben and Joval Toombe.
Oyet, the union leader, said he was concerned that the six had been held longer than the 24-hour limit set by law for detaining suspects – after which they should have been taken to court.
In a note, the organization asked that the investigations be closed quickly. “If there has been professional misconduct or wrongdoing,” the authorities should “deal with it fairly, transparently and in accordance with the law,” it says.
Representative of the sub-Saharan Africa region on the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), Muthoki Mumo said that the incident confirms a “tendency of security forces to resort to arbitrary arrests whenever they believe media coverage is unfavorable “.
“Authorities must unconditionally release journalists and ensure that they can work without being intimidated or threatened with arrest,” he added.
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