National security officials in Yei River County dragged the director of FM station Radio Easter to their offices for investigations after his station aired a report accusing government soldiers of torturing and killing eight people recently.
A source said Father Emmanuel Sebit, who heads the Yei branch of the nationwide Catholic Radio Network, was taken to security offices to answer questions about a Wednesday radio report which described alleged extradudicial killings of eight civilians in Kajo-Keji county, which borders Yei.
The source revealed that state security officers who stormed the radio station premises demanded the whereabouts of two radio journalists who broadcast the news of the alleged killings on Wednesday evening and on Thursday morning.
“When they stormed the station, the asked for the two journalists who broadcasted the news on air but unfortunately they could not find them at the time of their arrival but only ended up picking the station director in an angry way,” the source said.
Security personnel said they will continue to visit the premises of Radio Easter to check all stories ahead of time and to and monitor any news broadcast about human rights abuses.
Father Emmanuel later reportedly told radio staff that he was taken from his workplace by security personnel at 2:00 p.m. and released after four hours, at about 6:00 p.m. according to a media source.
“I explained to them why the station has broadcast the human rights abuse story,” he is reported to have said, according to the media worker.
Catholic Radio Network has apparently removed a text version of the story from their website.
According to the story before it was taken down, a concerned citizen in Kajo-Keji County accused the SPLA of reportedly murdering eight young men and torturing them with hot metal following the return of Dr Riek Machar and the formation of the Transitional Government of National Unity.
The anonymous citizen said since Machar came back to Juba, continuous arrests and tortures of youth in Kajo-Keji County have become the order of the day.
The citizen said the SPLA alleges that the youth of the area are supporters of first vice president Machar.
The source called on the Joint Monitoring and Evaluation Commission and the Transitional Government of National Unity to intervene by ordering the SPLA in Kajo-Keji to stop threatening and killing civilians.
The South Sudanese citizen appealed to President Salva Kiir to order his army deployed in the area not to turn against citizens and their property.
CRN also said in its report that the Kajo-Keji county commissioner Julius Lokonga denied any knowledge of the alleged tortures and killings of youth.
In a recent press conference and public address, the Governor of Yei River state David Lokonga Moses ordered security organs not to threaten any journalist or media house in his state territory.
“I have come here to work with the media especially the journalists, am always a media friendly person and I don’t want any security person to threaten any journalist and I want the security organs to protect them,” he had said.
Related:
Killings in Yei and Kajo-Keji (6 May)
CORRECTION (9 May 2016): This report as originally published included a quotation by Father Emmanuel, which should not have been attributed to him directly because he did not speak publicly to the media about his case. In fact, his remarks were reported to Radio Tamazuj second-hand. Relevant parts of this report have been changed.