CPJ demands “immediate” release of S. Sudanese editor

January 7, 2016 (NAIROBI) – South Sudanese authorities should immediately release journalist Joseph Afandi, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said Thursday.

According to CPJ, Afandi, an editor for the Arabic daily El Tabeer was arrested by security agents from the newspaper’s offices in the capital, Juba on 30 December and detained.

Security officials faulted the editor for authoring an opinion critical of the ruling Sudan People’s Liberation Movement of failure to protect the lives of its people.

Despite the arrest, however, no charges were preferred against the detained editor.

“No journalist should be jailed for doing his job, which includes the right to publish or broadcast critical observations about public figures and institutions,” said CPJ Africa’s program coordinator Sue Valentine, adding that “South Sudanese authorities should release Joseph Afandi immediately or disclose any charges against him, and end their harassment of El Tabeer.”

Journalists working in South Sudan, CPJ said, are subjected to arbitrary arrests and threats. Last year, President Salva Kiir publicly threatened kill journalists for reporting “against the country.”

In January 2015, five journalists were killed in an ambush on a political convoy in Western Bahr al Ghazal state, attracting condemnation from the New York-based rights entity.

South Sudan ranks as the 125th worst nation out of 180, according to the latest placement by international press freedom watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF).

(ST)