January was a devastating month for press freedom in South Sudan, according to a report released this weekend by the activist group Community Empowerment for Progress Organization (CEPO).
In the month of January, South Sudanese journalists were murdered, beaten, detained, threatened with death, and forced to censor themselves.
The worst incident was on 25 January, when five journalists from state TV and radio were killed in an ambush in Raja County in Western Bahr al Ghazal state.
Given the small community of journalists in South Sudan, one media leader said the deaths in Raja represented “irrecoverable damage” to the country’s press.
Days earlier, on 20 January, a reporter from the Nation Mirror newspaper was beaten up while trying to cover a protest in Juba. On the same day, two other journalists from the same paper were viciously assaulted while attempting to report on a demonstration over clashes that took place in Northern Bari payam.
Two days before that, guards at the gate of the SPLM office at the Ministries Compound in Juba threatened to kill a journalist seeking to interview a top SPLM official about the Arusha Agreement, according to CEPO’s investigation.
National Security Services forced the independent Juba Monitor newspaper to issue an apology on 16 January for an article that suggested the South Sudan Civil War is an ethnic conflict. The NSS said they would shut down the Juba Monitor if an apology was not issued. Separately, on 25 January a government media journalist was warned against reporting on the former state TV director who defected to the rebels.
Meanwhile, UN radio journalist George Livio remained in detention into a fifth month. On 13 January, Livio’s defense lawyer was denied access to his client. At publishing time, Livio has been in jail for 164 days without charge.
On the first day of 2015, the manager of independent Maridi FM radio was detained by security agents after he declined to publish reports from government broadcasters. He was later released.
Related:
Survivor suspects LRA in brutal attack in Raja County (28 Jan.)
Four government journalists killed in ambush in South Sudan (26 Jan.)
Detained UN journalist denied legal aid by S Sudan security (13 Jan.)
Timeline: media struggle in South Sudan (18 Aug.)