The keynote speaker at a UNESCO-sponsored press freedom event in South Sudan’s capital city Juba on Monday lashed out at journalists and vowed that security agents would continue to investigate them.
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) supported the event and also endorsed the agenda at which Minister of Information and Broadcasting Michael Makuei was honoured as the ‘chief guest’.
Under the theme ‘Media Safety, Freedom of Expression and Gender Equality in the Media,’ journalists, media workers and government officials gathered today at the Dembesh Hotel in Juba.
Army Brigadier General Malaak Ayuen and Minister of Information Michael Makuei were both given prominent place on the agenda. Several foreign embassies sponsored the event, including those of the United States of America, Sweden and Switzerland.
“The national security organs are charged of protection of the nation… it is their duty to question you,” said Makuei in his speech on the occasion.
“Even if the media laws are operational today and the courts are set up and all these are set up, nevertheless, the national security law is there and it will continue to operate because this is the only mechanism for pretection of the nation, securitywise,” he added.
Makuei also referred to the government’s preference for dealing with journalists at the National Secuity headquarters rather than prosecuting them in a court. Journalists have been calling for operalization of laws that decriminalize offenses in journalism and grant journalists the right to trial rather than detention without due process.
The information minister vowed that the government would indeed take journalists to court, while noting that this would not stop the National Security Service from remaining involved.
“Any freedom comes with responsibiliy,” he stressed. “Up to now we have not taken any journalist to the court but we will do so. Yes, we will do so. Because they are being taken to the court all over the world. It is only South Sudan where they have not taken anybody up to now.”
“So if calling anybody [to National Security] and talking him and setting him free is becoming a problem, then we will apply the law as it is, a situation that we don’t want to enter.”
Newspaper censored
Meanwhile, security agents of the National Security Service over the weekend summoned the editor of Al Maugif, one of the main Arabic papers in the country, threatening him not to publish an interview with SPLM-DC party chairman Lam Akol. The paper had promoted the story prior to publishing.
Atem Simon, one of the newspaper’s journalists, told Radio Tamazuj that the newspaper decided to pull the story following threats from the security agents that they would take strict action against the newspaper should it go forward with its plan to publish the interview.
The politician in question had been under house arrest last week.
Allegations against Makuei
Both of the two government guests invited to speak at the UNESCO-sponsored event on Monday were last year accused by the former state TV director of racism and incitement of violence.
In a letter written in December 2014, Director General of South Sudan Radio and Television (SSTV) Khamis Abdel-Latif described Minister of Information Michael Makuei as “a tribal and racist man.” He and Makuei both hail from the same tribe. Separately, the former senior civil servant told Radio Tamazuj that the minister introduced policies to try to make SSTV “a television of war.”
Voice of America reported in April 2014 that Makuei blamed a massacre of civilians in his home area Bor on UN peacekeepers, saying they “provoked” the attack. A later UN investigation determined that the attack appeared to have been planned in advance. As quoted by VOA, he further characterized the unarmed civilians slain during the attack as ‘rebels,’ implying that they were legitimate targets of war.
According to Khamis Abdel-Latif, Makuei last year arranged for Brigadier Malaak Ayuen – also invited to the press freedom event – to appear four times per week on the state-run television to talk about politics and war.
“Brigadier Malaak is talking politics and polishing tribe,” Khamis stated, further accusing the military information official of discussing politics and tribal issues rather than limiting his comments to military matters.
Khamis Abdel-Latif was eventually pushed out of his position following a power struggle with Makuei for control of the state television and radio.
Makuei threatens UN Radio Miraya
UNESCO and a panel of organizers from the national media association and journalists’ union organized the event held Monday in Juba. They decided that Makuei should jointly keynote the event in spite of threats that he made against the UN-run Radio Miraya earlier this year.
Makuei on 16 February openly threatened journalists of the UN station Radio Miraya saying, “Miraya: you are interviewing rebels. If it happens again we are shutting you down.” He was reacting to an interview that the UN radio station did with Rebecca Garang, who does not belong to any rebel group and is the widow of the late chairman of the country’s ruling party.
The minister also in February referred to earlier threats to USAID-funded Eye Radio not to broadcast opposition statements saying, “Last time, we shut down the Eye Radio, and we gave them a warning. It is happening now at Miraya.”
In further remarks he also defended the government’s expulsion last year of foreign correspondent Mohammed Adow saying the latter was “lucky” not to have been imprisoned “like the man in Egypt” — a reference to Al Jazeera correspondent Peter Greste.
Related:
Official who threatened Radio Miraya to speak at UN press freedom event (29 April 2015)
‘I will shut down the UN’ says South Sudan’s information minister (17 Feb. 2015)
Head of SSTV accuses Makuei of warmongering (13 Dec. 2014)
Makuei: ‘Citizens don’t need to know’ (9 Dec. 2014)