S. Sudan says it will release Ugandan journalists after “background checks”

July 29, 2013 (JUBA) – South Sudan said on Monday it will release two Ugandan journalists its security services arrested for alleged illegal activities after conducting “thorough background checks”.

The pair are accused of illegally working in the country without accreditation and filming near key sensitive government institutions.

In an exclusive interview with Sudan Tribune on Monday, a senior security officer said the agency had been in contact with the Ugandan government through its embassy in Juba and that they had been made aware of the situation.

“The migration office does not have documents identifying them as journalists which they claimed when they were found filming near key sensitive government institutions. They also do not have accredited documents showing they are journalists from the ministry of information, so we need to conduct thorough background checks which we are doing with our embassy in Uganda but they will definitely be released”, the officer told Sudan Tribune.

He identified the journalists as Justin Dralaze and Hilary Ayesiga, saying the security agency had yet to receive any contact from the news agencies for which the pair reportedly work in Uganda.

Both the under-secretary, George Garang, and director-general at the ministry of information, Mustafa Biong, confirmed the arrests, adding that they also do not have any knowledge of the duo being accredited journalists by the institution.

Neither of the senior officials would comment on what role the ministry would play in the case.

“This is a security issue and should be treated as such”, Garang told Sudan Tribune on Monday.

The head of the Union of Journalists of South Sudan (UJOSS), Oliver Modi, equally avoided commenting on the issue, in an indication of the levels of self-censorship such controversial or sensitive issues attract, in a country where relations between media and security organs have increasingly become unstable.

(ST)