South Sudan’s National Security Service (NSS), an organ of government that reports directly to President Salva Kiir, has moved to close down a newspaper in South Sudan allegedly because they think that it is an “anti-government publication.”
Today the print run of The Nation Mirror newspaper was seized in Juba by security personnel. The paper was also “ordered to shut by the Internal National Security Bureau,” according to a press release from the newspaper.
NSS’s Internal Security Bureau headed by Gen. Akol Kur has ordered the closure of at least three newspapers since 2011 and detained without charge numerous journalists. One radio journalist in their custody, George Livio, is in his sixth month of detention without charge.
It is unclear on what grounds exactly the security service ordered the closure of the newspaper because, as is sometimes their practice, they made no written order effecting the closure — at least not one that has been made public.
But the editor-in-chief of Nation Mirror Wol Deng Atak said the security authorities decided to close the paper after it published a story on 28 January about a skirmish in Renk County. After a rebel attack in that area the SPLA spokesman said that a platoon of SPLA troops had pulled out from the Imtidad market in Renk County.
The Nation Mirror admitted that it misreported this story: “Due to typing error the title of main headline gave impression (six days back) that the SPLA have withdrawn from Renk garrison. However, the story narrated the attack on Imtidat located north of Renk, where a platoon of SPLA was stationed but not Renk itself.”
Wol Deng, the chief editor, says that the paper extended an apology to the readership and to SPLA on the following day, 29 January. “The paper also published both the apology and a statement from Government of Upper Nile State dispelling the withdrawal side by side on its front page,” he said.
Security authorities moved even more aggressively against the paper after it admitted making this error. “It has come to our attention that superiors of the leadership of Internal National Security Bureau think this article amount to ‘anti-government publication’, thus The Nation Mirror must be shut indefinitely,” explained Wol.
He noted that the newspaper is not anti-government but simply is trying to do journalistic work. He said that they are still “negotiating” with the National Security to reopen the paper.
This development comes after another incident last month in which a Nation Mirror journalist was beaten allegedly by violent demonstrators in Juba while covering a protest. Also last month the National Security Service forced the Juba Monitor to issue an apology for publishing commentary that they found objectionable.