Human Rights Watch call for release of Sudan Tribune journalist

PLEASE SIGN THIS PETITION ASKING FOR NGOR TO BE RELEASED AND PASS THE LINK ON TO YOUR FRIENDS AND CONTACTS.

http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/release_ngor_garang/

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November 5, 2011 (KHARTOUM) – Human Rights Watch and the Committee to Protect Journalists called on Saturday for the release of Sudan Tribune journalist Ngor Garang, who was arrested Wednesday after a newspaper he edits in Juba published an article critical of South Sudan’s president Salva Kiir.

On 26 October, The Destiny newspaper’s first ever edition carried an opinion piece saying that Kiir should not have allowed his daughter to marry an Ethiopian. As editor in chief of the newspaper, Ngor was summoned to meet South Sudan’s security services on Tuesday and was detained the next day.

It is not known where Ngor is being held or what charges, if any, have been made against him but it is suspected he is being held at a prison in the Jebel Market area. Attempts by Sudan Tribune to reach officials at South Sudan’s interior and information ministries have failed.

Human Rights Watch’s Jehanne Henry told Sudan Tribune that based on the information available “the arrest and detention of Ngor raises serious concerns about how security officials are carrying out their duties.”

Ngor’s detention is illegal as under South Sudanese criminal law a person cannot be held for more than 24 hours without permission from the prosecutor or court.

Article 19(4) of the Constitution of the Republic of South Sudan 2011 states that:

A person arrested by the police as part of an investigation, may be held in detention, for a period not exceeding 24 hours and if not released on bond to be produced in court. The court has authority to either remand the accused in prison or to release him or her on bail.

Jehanne Henry said that Human Rights Watch has found that there is no indication that these legal proceedings have been followed in Ngor’s case.

“South Sudanese authorities should immediately release or charge Ngor according to [the] law, and make known the place of his detention and ensure he has access to legal counsel.”

Freedom of expression was one of the reasons South Sudan fought a bitter civil war against north Sudan that lasted over two decades and killed around two million people.

Former southern rebels, the SPLM, have governed South Sudan since a peace deal in 2005 gave the region the right to self determination. In July South Sudan became independent from north Sudan but attacks against the press remain common.

According to Henry, Ngor’s case “underscores the need to ensure that South Sudanese security forces do not copy Sudan’s national security service, which has long been used as a tool of repression in Sudan by illegally detaining journalists, activists, and other opponents of the ruling party in violation of basic civil rights.”

The South Sudan Human Rights Society for Advocacy (SSHURSA) released a statement on Saturday calling for Ngor’s release, pointing out that as well as violating Sudanese law, his ‘arbitrary’ detention by the security services ‘also contravenes the provision of Article 9 of the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948.’

The local human rights organisation said that Dengdit Ayok The Destiny‘s deputy editor in chief, who wrote the article criticising Kiir, was detained by South Sudan’s security services today.

Ngor’s arrest has also drawn criticism from press freedom group, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).

“The newspaper has apologised for the article. There is no reason whatsoever Ngor should remain under detention,” CPJ’s East Africa Consultant, Tom Rhodes, told Sudan Tribune on Saturday.

“South Sudan’s government are getting into the habit of arbitrarily detaining journalists for any critical stories printed – this trend must end immediately.”

According to figures given to CPJ by South Sudan’s Union of Journalists, Ngor’s extended detention is at least the ninth attack on the press this year.

Nhial Bol, the editor in chief of The Citizen newspaper in Juba has been arrested twice in 2011. Last month he was taken into custody by South Sudanese police after he investigated the business dealings of a Warrap state minister. Earlier this year Bol was taken into custody and had a gun pointed in his face by a police officer in Juba, who said his writing had “spoiled” the image of South Sudan’s SPLM dominated government.

South Sudan’s interior minister General Alison Manani Magaya said last month that journalists should consider the image of the world’s newest nation when deciding what to write and publish.

“Whatever you write always […] think of South Sudan first, read your report and then ask yourself if this goes out does it have any implications on me as an individual, the country or the individual I am writing about? Once you are able to decide this, then you go ahead.”

South Sudan’s ruling SPLM passed up the opportunity to clarify the country’s media laws when it signed a new transitional constitution into law at its independence ceremony on 9 July. In the five and a half years since South Sudan gained self rule adequate guarantees over freedom of expression in the media have not been brought into law.

A September report by the Committee to Protect Journalists found that ‘local journalists fear the former rebels turned government officials still harbor a war mentality that is unaccustomed to criticism, and that they are not prepared to extend the freedoms they fought hard to attain.’

On Friday Sudan Tribune‘s editor in chief Mohammed Nagi said in a press release, that he condemned “in the strongest terms the arbitrary arrest of Ngor,” calling for his immediate release.

(ST)

PLEASE SIGN THIS PETITION ASKING FOR NGOR TO BE RELEASED AND PASS THE LINK ON TO YOUR FRIENDS AND CONTACTS.

http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/release_ngor_garang/

NEWS ITEM: Sudan Tribune journalist arrested in Juba

PRESS RELEASE: Sudan Tribune calls for South Sudan to release journalist

Below is the article, published in The Destiny Newspaper on Wednesday, October 25, that is believed to have triggered Ngor’s arrest.

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Nyan Bany

By Dengdit Ayok

Juba, the temporal capital city of our new born nation on Saturday, October 22, 2011 witnessed a disappointing social episode that was found disgusting and denounced by many patriotic South Sudanese across the country.
Our revered and acclaimed President, Sir Salva Kiir Mayardit, who is one of the symbols of our long historic struggle and who is also a symbol of our sovereignty, dignity, integrity and source of our national pride, handed over his beloved-beautiful elder daughter (Adut) to a foreigner in a wedding ceremony held in the Catholic Cathedral at Rajaf.

The wedding raised our eyebrows because we didn’t expect Nyan Beny (daughter of the President) to be married by a foreigner when many national suit her profile for marriage; this without saying that it matters not how long she may stay in her father’s house. A wedding as we all know is a social function that people go to cheerfully with women ululating. However, the wedding of Nyan Beny that took place last Saturday was attended by a small crowd of people with clouds of sadness gathered in their hearts as it was clear from their faces; because they were upset by the decision taken by the President to give his daughter in wedding to a stranger.

The wedding that could have been attended by thousands of South Sudanese with elation and delight, to display their traditional dances and turn it into a national wedding like the British royal wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton, was reduced to a very low morale standard function with the attendance of just a few government officials and a minute crowd.

This wedding has not only shocked and angered members of Kiir’s family, but divided it and turned its peace into quarrels and squabbles, it has also shocked the whole nation; because Kiir is a patriotic leader that fought two wars for the wellbeing of his people, a thing which made him valued and highly respected by South Sudanese. But now that he has given his daughter in wedding to an alien, he has to some extent reduced himself in the eyes of his people.

I am writing about about Adut`s wedding because my heart is in pain like the hearts of many zealous South Sudanese who have opposed it, and I am happy that I have a public platform to air out my wrath and the wrath of many fellow countrymen and women. By giving his daughter to a foreigner, our President has stained his patriotism and turned his leadership questionable in our eyes.

This wedding is a demonstration that foreigners have not only monopolized our market, economy and robbed our integrity after penetrating it, but it is also a demonstration that they have taken over our national pride. What else is left if an alien could penetrate all the hedges and invade the house of our President, eloped and impregnated his daughter? Where were the security presidential personnel when that strange guy entered the house of the President?

This wedding of the First Girl which is supposed to be blessed by all South Sudanese including this author is rejected and the religious leaders who blessed the couple in the house of God regardless of their knowledge that she had conceived, have committed a great sin against God for making unholy matrimony holy!

ENDS

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PLEASE SIGN THIS PETITION ASKING FOR NGOR TO BE RELEASED AND PASS THE LINK ON TO YOUR FRIENDS AND CONTACTS.

http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/release_ngor_garang/