South Sudan’s professional media associaton denied rumors that National Security Services (NSS) will close the Juba Monitor newspaper.
News reports quoting the Juba Monitor’s editor-in-chief said NSS agents ordered the paper to shut down following publication of an article that highlighted the ethnic nature of fighting in the country.
In a press release sent to newsrooms Monday, the Association for Media Development in South Sudan (AMDISS) clarified that NSS did not order the Juba Monitor to close, but threatened to close the paper if an apology was not issued over the article in question. The Juba Monitor acquiesced to the demand and was therefore not shut down.
“In January 12th 2015, one of the Juba Monitor’s editors was called to the national security office, following an article written under a column named ‘UNDIPLOMATIC CHAT,’ titled “Is not a Dinka-Nuer War?”, which appeared in Juba Monitor Vol. 5 Issue No. 285,” AMDISS said. “The security told the Editor, to inform his Editor In Chief of the paper to write an apology concerning the article, or else the security would close the paper. The Editor In Chief did as he was told and stopped the column ‘UNDIPLOMATIC CHAT.’ Consequently, the paper was allowed to proceed with its normal publication.”
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Editor: S Sudan security agents order Juba Monitor shut down