South Sudan’s National Security Services have ordered the shutdown of the independent daily Juba Monitor newspaper, the paper’s editor said.
Juba Monitor editor-in-chief Alfred Taban said he received the order Thursday after his editorial director was summoned to NSS headquarters, Voice of America (VOA) reported.
Taban said that NSS officials told the editorial director the paper would be shut down because a recent article portrayed the South Sudan Civil War as an ethnic conflict.
“When she went, they told her that they have decided to close down the Juba Monitor — my newspaper — because, they said, there were two articles that were very much against the system,” Taban told VOA.
The article said that the Dinka and Nuer tribes “…are fighting for supremacy in this country at the expense of all others.” The SPLA-Juba of Salva Kiir, who is a Dinka from Warrap state, has frequently downplayed the ethnic nature of the war.
NSS operatives further took issue with an article written about Warrap State which they said portrayed leaders from that state as neglecting their own constituents, according to Taban.
“They say these two articles are very bad and that means Juba Monitor is completely against the system and they have decided to close it down,” Taban said.
The veteran editor called on the US government to put pressure on the government of South Sudan to respect freedom of the press.
“The U.S. government can help us by sending a very strong message to the government that what it is doing is not in the interest of this country. I think the U.S. government has not been talking with a very strong voice. I mean, if they had been talking with a very strong voice, the government would have noted this,” he said.
Photo: Juba Monitor Editor-in-Chief Alfred Taban (VOA)