Sudan Tribune website hacked; Machar not target of assassination attempt

April 2, 2014 (PARIS) – Sudan Tribune would like to clarify that a fake report published on Tuesday stating that former South Sudan vice-president and leader of the SPLM in Opposition Riek Machar was assassinated was a result to the site being hacked apparently in an April Fool’s Day prank done in an extremely poor taste.

The unidentified hacker got access to the webmaster account after which they disabled passwords of the entire staff and access to the site was suspended.

The decision was taken to shut down the server to allow the site to be repaired and the false post removed.

Machar is in fact alive and well and there was no basis for the report published.

Sudan Tribune takes the ethics and journalism codes of practice very seriously, but unfortunately this incident occurred due to circumstances beyond our control. We join a long list of news organizations such as the New York Times and Associated Press who fell victim to hackers.

We apologise unreservedly for any distress this may have caused.

(ST)