South Sudan’s authorities have shut down a leading Arabic-language daily newspaper, Al Watan, the editor said Monday, after it published a statement related to the Israel-Palestine war.
The move will add to rights groups’ concerns about media freedoms as the country prepares to hold its first-ever elections since independence in 2011.
There was no immediate government comment, and it was not immediately clear how long the closure would last.
Michael Christopher, the editor-in-chief of Al Watan newspaper, told Radio Tamazuj that security officials summoned the editorial leadership over a statement they published on 11 October and ordered the paper closed on Friday.
“The statement we published on 11 October was extended to us by former minister of youth and sports, Dr Albino Bol Dhieu, and it was paid content for publication. We published the statement on the paper’s front page as sponsored content,” he said.
“The statement contains a condolence message from the President of the Republic to the Prime Minister of the State of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, for the people they lost to the attack by Hamas. There was also a similar statement from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs,” he added.
“As a media house, we just published the two statements because they came from public institutions. So we did not know that there were different views on the issue.”
The South Sudanese editor appealed to the government to take swift measures to ensure press freedom and an open media environment in the lead up to the 2024 polls.
“I call on the government or the national security to channel all matters related to the media houses and journalists to the Media Authority,” Michael said. “We are currently affected by the closure because we used to distribute 2,000 copies daily. We were having commitments to publish some advertisements but now it is a challenge after the paper closed.”
The editor pointed out that they have complained to the Media Authority, a body charged with regulating journalistic practices in the country.
Meanwhile, the Association for Media Development in South Sudan (AMDISS) has expressed concern over the closure of Al-Watan daily newspaper and called on the authorities to reopen the paper.
In a Friday statement, AMDISS described the closure of the newspaper as detrimental to media space especially at a time when media pluralism and access to information is paramount.
“As the nation heads toward important democratic processes where the role of media is critical, AMDISS appeals to concerned authorities to reconsider their decision and resolve the issue through dialogue and allow the newspaper to operate and continue disseminating educational content to the general public,” the statement read in part.
The media advocacy body further called on the authorities to consider channeling media-related issues to Media Authority as a body empowered by law to address media complaints.
South Sudanese journalists report frequent obstruction and harassment by the authorities.
South Sudan’s government in October admitted to having censored the media and removing articles it deemed to incite hatred after a U.N.-backed inquiry detailed “pervasive” restrictions on free press in the world’s youngest country.
Information Minister Michael Makuei said government censorship was a “protective measure” because allowing certain articles to go to print would “cause insecurity [and] we would prefer to take it out.”
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