Ugandan scribes appeal to S. Sudan’s Kiir over detained colleagues
July 30, 2013 (KAMPALA) – Ugandan journalists have launched a social media campaign calling on South Sudan’s president, Salva Kiir to release two of their colleagues detained in the country since Saturday.
An online campaign started on behalf of the journalists was on Tuesday doing the rounds on social media networks Twitter and Facebook, with various messages of support posted on the sites including “South Sudan free Ugandan journos”.
The journalists also appealed directly to Kiir, calling for the immediate release of the Ugandan journalists.
Justine Dralaze and Hillary Ayesiga, both freelancers for international news agencies, were arrested on 27 July as they filmed in Juba together with local journalist Sunday David Tut, who was acting as their fixer and driver.
The group, who were arrested on Airport Road, are accused of working illegally and filming key sensitive government institutions without permission.
It is unclear why Tut – who is understood to be a Sudanese national – is being held.
Uganda has ordered its ambassador in Juba, Maj. Gen. Robert Rusoke, to work towards the release of the Ugandan journalists who are reportedly being detained at the National Security headquarters in Juba, which is notorious for the appalling conditions in which suspects are held.
Ayesiga, who normally works for China’s CCTV, and Draleze, a former Reuters journalist in Uganda, are on assignment in Juba for independent US news agency Feature Story News (FSN) to cover the security and political fall-out following president Salva Kiir’s 23 July decision to dissolve his entire cabinet and impose a curfew in the capital.
The Ugandan embassy in Juba said that a scheduled meeting with South Sudanese officials on Tuesday to discuss the situation of the journalists was cancelled at the last minute.
In an interview with Sudan Tribune on Monday, a senior security officer said it appeared the pair had been working in the country illegally and that they were not in possession of the required accreditation papers to prove they were journalists.
He made assurances they would be released once “thorough background checks” had been conducted.
Meanwhile, press advocacy group, Reporters Without Borders (RWB) said it was appalled by the actions of South Sudanese security agents, saying it feared the journalists may have been mistreated while in custody.
It has called on South Sudan to break its silence on the whereabouts and the conditions of the visiting journalists, who are likely facing a fourth night in detention.
“The government’s silence about these three journalists’ place of detention and present state of health, and what they are alleged to have done, is unacceptable and worrying,” RWB said in a statement extended to Sudan Tribune on Tuesday.
“We condemn the fact that they have had no contact with the outside world since their arrest and we fear that they may have been mistreated. We call on the South Sudanese authorities to release them unconditionally at once and to explain the reasons for their arrest and prolonged detention”, the statement adds.
In a 2012 report published one year after South Sudan gained its independence, RWB criticised the regime’s paranoia towards the press and the brutality of its security forces.
Sudan was ranked 124th out of 179 countries in the 2013 annual press freedom index, a slide of 13 places from its position the previous year before, when it was included in the index for the first time.
The arrest and detention of the Ugandan journalists in Juba comes less than a week after Uganda deported Taylor Krauss, an American journalist whom it accused of working without accreditation in the country.
(ST)