Six journalists have been detained in South Sudan over the leaked video of President Salva Kiir that went viral, the Union of Journalists of South Sudan (UJOSS) has said.
Joval Tombe, Cherbek Ruben, Victor Lado, Joseph Oliver, Jacob Benjamin, and Mustafa Osman – all working for the state-run broadcaster South Sudan Broadcasting Corporation (SSBC) – were arrested this week, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).
They work for SSBC, which did not air the viral footage.
The Committee called for thei immediate and unconditional release of the scribes.
As of Friday evening, CPJ said the six remained in detention at the National Security Service headquarters known as Blue House.
Further, CPJ said the managing director of South Sudan’s Media Authority, a statutory regulator, declined to comment, saying he was “out of office”.
The CPJ’s sub-Saharan Africa representative Muthoki Mumo said the arrests match a “pattern of security personnel resorting to arbitrary detention whenever officials deem coverage unfavourable”.
“Authorities should unconditionally release these six SSBC employees and ensure that they can work without further intimidation or threat of arrest,” Ms Mumo said.
The Union of Journalists of South Sudan, which had previously denied claims that the journalists were being detained, have now called for a speedy conclusion to the investigations