Nairobi,
February 10, 2014 - The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the ban
on independent newspaper Nation Mirror, which was ordered to stop
publishing by National Security Service agents in South Sudan's capital Juba,
and calls on authorities to immediately reverse the order.
The
National Security Service seized the print run of the privately owned English daily Nation Mirror from the printersat around 5 a.m.
February 3 and, in a meeting at security headquarters later that day, agents
told Wol Deng Atak, the editor-in-chief, the paper was barred from publishing
indefinitely because it printed "anti-government articles," Atak told
CPJ.
No official order or law was cited in the meeting, according to Atak. The
website of the Nation Mirror has not been affected by the ban.
The
action last week came after a headline in the paper on January 28 erroneously
reported the withdrawal of troops from Renk, in northeastern South Sudan, when
they had only withdrawn from an area north of Renk, according to local reports. The paper issued an apology in the following
edition.
"Suspending
a newspaper that reported incorrectly is a hugely disproportionate response and
is not based in South Sudanese law or regulation," said CPJ East Africa
Representative Tom Rhodes. "We call on authorities to allow the Nation
Mirror to resume publishing immediately and to allow independent media to
freely report the news without fear of censorship or retaliation."
Calls
to presidential spokesman Ateny Wek Ateny and Information Minister Michael
Makuei about the suspension were left unanswered.
The
National Security Service threatened to close another South Sudan newspaper
last month, local journalists told CPJ. On January 12, agents called Anna
Nimiriano, editorial director of privately owned daily Juba Monitor, to
their offices and threatened to close the paper, Michael Koma, a columnist and editorial board member for
the paper, told CPJ. The officials threatened to close the paper if Juba
Monitor continued to publish columns by Koma, he added.
Security agents
told Nimiriano they disapproved of two January opinion columns by Koma:
"Warrap tycoon versus Kuajok misery" and "Is not a Dinka-Nuer
war?" that criticized officials for the lack of development in Warrap
state and claimed the current fighting is an ethnic-driven conflict, Koma said.
Chief Editor Alfred Taban issued an apology to the government and stopped the
column, news reports said.
The
security services conduct these operations without recourse to South Sudanese
law and in defiance of the transitional constitution that contains clauses
protecting freedom of expression, local journalists told CPJ.
Civil
war has ravaged South Sudan, with 1.9 million displaced and more than 50,000 killed after fighting broke out between forces loyal to
President Salva Kiir and those supporting former vice-president Riek Machar,
according to estimates from conflict prevention organization
International Crisis Group and the U.N.
Officials have targeted the press
throughout the conflict, which has led to self-censorship as journalists try to
avoid harassment and closures, according to CPJ research.
In
a separate incident, protesters attacked Nation Mirror reporter Athiang John at Juba
Teaching Hospital on January 20 while he investigated killings in Kworijin, a village
north of the capital, John told CPJ. Police rescued him from the crowd but John
said he injured his head and damaged his voice recorder and phone in the
struggle.
The reporter was targeted alongside other members of the press, who
managed to escape without injury, after the media made inquiries at the
hospital into the number of casualties from the attacks by two ethnic groups in
Kworijin, John and other journalists told CPJ.
Unidentified
gunmen killed 11 people, including five journalists, in a roadside ambush last month in
Western Bahr al Ghazal state, according to local journalists and news reports.
These were the first killings of journalists
in direct relation to their work, documented by CPJ since South Sudan achieved
independence.
CPJ is an
independent, nonprofit organization that works to safeguard press freedom
worldwide.
Media contacts:
Sue Valentine
Africa Program
Coordinator
Peter Nkanga
West Africa
Representative
Email: pnkanga@cpj.org
Tom Rhodes
East Africa
Representative
Email: trhodes@cpj.org
No comments:
Post a Comment