Sudan Tribune calls for South Sudan to release journalist
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PLEASE SIGN THIS PETITION ASKING FOR OUR COLLEAGUE NGOR GARANG TO BE RELEASED AND PASS THE LINK ON TO YOUR FRIENDS AND CONTACTS.
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/release_ngor_garang/
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Sudan Tribune calls for South Sudan to release journalist
November 4, 2011
Since Wednesday 2 November Ngor Aguot Garang, a journalist at Sudan Tribune, has been held illegally by South Sudan’s security services following the publication of an opinion piece criticising South Sudan’s president Salva Kiir in The Destiny, a newspaper which Ngor edits in Juba.
“We condemn in the strongest terms the arbitrary arrest of Ngor Aguot who has showed during the past several years a very high sense of professionalism in his large coverage of political and economic developments in South Sudan,” Mohamed Nagi the Sudan Tribune’s editor in chief said on Friday.
In the article, published in The Destiny’s first edition on 26 October, its author Gengdit Ayok expressed the opinion that Kiir should not have allowed his daughter to marry an Ethiopian, claiming it was unpatriotic.
The Destiny received a letter, addressed to its editor in chief (Ngor) from a senior security official accusing the newspaper of failing to follow professional ethics and publishing illicit news, which was defamatory in nature. The letter did not mention the actual article which led to Ngor’s the arrest but it is widely thought to be due to Gengdit Ayok’s opinion piece.
The Destiny newspaper has since been suspended by South Sudan’s information ministry despite an apology from the newspaper. Attempts by Sudan Tribune to contact South Sudan’s interior and information ministries have failed.
Ngor’s detention is illegal and he has not been charged with, nor has he committed any crime.
Sudan Tribune calls for Ngor’s immediate release and asks civil society, press freedom groups, the international community and other concerned actors to demand the South Sudanese authorities to release Ngor immediately and to uphold the freedom of the press.
PLEASE SIGN THIS PETITION ASKING FOR OUR COLLEAGUE NGOR GARANG TO BE RELEASED AND PASS THE LINK ON TO YOUR FRIENDS AND CONTACTS.
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/release_ngor_garang/