Warrap: Journalist arrested for opposing provincial orders
June 13, 2013 (JUBA) – Authorities in South Sudan’s Warrap state have detained a journalist for opposing a recent provincial order against playing of cards in the region, relatives told Sudan Tribune.
The order, issued by the state deputy governor, instruct police to close down all youth hangout places, claiming most young people were engaged in unproductive activities.
Gabino Kiir, the deputy speaker of the state legislative assembly said Makuac Akot Ngongdit has been in detention, since Tuesday.
“He was arrested allegedly for criticizing police for arresting over 100 youth groups, whom authorities rounded on Friday. The state model transitional constitution permits authorities to issue provincial orders in the absence of parliament,” Kiir told Sudan Tribune by phone Thursday.
He did not, however, mention which provision within the state constitution empowers authorities to issue such an order.
The deputy speaker, who visited the journalist in prison, too admitted that police detained the latter for allegedly criticising the recently issued order.
“I went to the prison where he is held. He is fine. I talked to him. I wanted to know the actual cause of arrest”, the legislator said.
South Sudan, which became independent in July 2011 as part of the 2005 peace deal that ended decades of civil war with north Sudan, still lack functional media legislation.
Over the last five months, however, the Union of Journalist in South Sudan (UJOSS) says it has documented more than 10 cases of arrests and detentions, due to the absence of media laws in South Sudan.
A recent report by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) found that local journalists fear officials in the current South Sudan government, still harbour a war mentality that is unaccustomed to criticism, and thus not prepared to extend the freedoms they fought hard to attain.
“We are still recovering from a war culture,” Oliver Modi, the UJOSS chairperson told CPJ in September last year.
“There is just too much ignorance toward the press. We are not used to systems, structures—even the media,” he added.
South Sudan, according to the annual press freedom index published by Reporters Without Borders (RWB) in January, stood at 124 out of the 180 countries ranked.
(ST)