An Eye Radio journalist has been briefly detained by security forces while covering protests at the national legislative assembly in Juba on Monday.
The protests were carried out by youth from Leer County of Unity state over the ongoing violence in their area. The protesting youth also called for the removal of state Governor Joseph Monytuil for allegedly failing to address security challenges there.
Obaj Okuj who conducted interviews with the protesters was then summoned before leaving the August House premises. He was later released after a few hours of detention.
Obaj told Radio Tamazuj that the security confiscated his gadget and ordered him to erase all the recordings, a directive he complied with.
“After the protest, I interviewed some of the youth representatives, then the securities asked why I was doing the interview and that I am not supposed to interview the protesters,” Obaj said. “After that, they detained me and took my recorder and asked me to delete the audio,” he added.
Reacting to the incident, the President of the Union of Journalists (UJOSS) described the event as unfortunate.
Patrick Oyet says his administration will engage authorities at the national legislature to “end the continuous unlawful harassment of journalists.”
“It is disappointing that a journalist is arrested or detained again in parliament. It is unfortunate and we will continue to engage with the authorities in parliament to ensure that these arrests don’t happen again,” Oyet said.
He added, “We are very concerned as UJOSS about the frequency of this kind of situation where a journalist is detained and later released. We are going to pursue the matter, we are going to follow up with the authorities in parliament.”
In February this year, at least eight journalists and an activist were briefly detained by the National Security Service while covering a press conference at Parliament in Juba.
The reporters were from different media houses.
The journalists went on an invite signed by about 19 legislators to lament on challenges facing the MPs in Juba and the slow implementation of the peace agreement.
But the security personnel who were inside the premises reportedly intruded and ordered the MPs to call off the presser. They also confiscated all the media gadgets and took the journalists to the office of the Internal Security Bureau within the August House.
The reporters were later transferred to the National Security office of the political Bureau along Bilpam road.
They spent nearly four hours before they were later released after an intervention by the President of the Union of Journalists in South Sudan.
According to the Media Authority Act of 2018 accredited Journalists, shall have the right to attend briefings, press conferences, press releases by the government or public sector organizations and other events organized for the press, and inclusion in official visits by the state and government officials.