South Sudan Presidential Advisor on Legal Affairs Telar Ring Deng today demanded a retraction from Sudan Tribune website for an article claiming that recent presidential decrees cited wrong provisions within the constitution.

The independent online daily originally ran with the lead “A number of embarrassing errors have emerged in decrees issued this week by South Sudan’s president.”

In a letter published today, Deng issued a defense of the legal provisions cited in the decrees and concluded with a demand for an apology and retraction of the article “and to stop forthwith publishing articles which do not meet internationally recognized ethical standards of journalism.”

Sudan Tribune has since issued a correction stating, “It turned out that the copy of the constitution relied on for the story was a draft version and not the final one creating this unfortunate and completely unintended situation.”

“Sudan Tribune wishes to thank its readers and South Sudan’s presidency their its feedback and bringing this matter to our attention correcting the record and at the same time sincerely apologizes for the misstatement on our part and the inconvenience it may have caused,” the media house added in a written article today.

It has elsewhere been noted, however, that one of the decrees (RSS/RO/J/14/2013) did mistakenly contain an omission, in that the Ministry of Health was left of a list of newly restructured ministries. This matter was corrected by separate decree the following day.

Photo: President Salva Kiir, flanked by Speaker of the Assembly James Wani, holds up the constitution on Independence Day, 9 July 2011