Security operatives allied to the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement faction (SPLM-Juba) under President Salva Kiir have dismissed as a lie and propaganda a report that they "waterboarded" journalist Mading Ngor after arresting him last week.

“We have no such information. Nobody has reported to us at the ministry that Mading Ngor was tortured. What I know is that he was taken for questioning and was released the following day after it was found that he was mistakenly taken with protestorrs," Paul Jacob, acting director general at the information ministry said in an interview on Sunday.

Likewise, Deng Santino Deng, a security officer with the Central Equatoria State security branch described the report as an attempt to tarnish the image of the government operatives.

"I saw that journalist (Mading Ngor) myself on Wednesday and again on Thursday morning before he was released and he was looking fine -- even though I did not talk to him because there were professional officers handling his case," said Deng.

"But I can say with confidence that he was not tortured, not even a verbal threat."

"Those allegations are nonsense. I think he just wants to attract public sympathy by tarnishing the image of the institution for the reason known to him alone, which is unacceptable,” he said.

The officials were reacting to a report by the SBS Dinka service quoting Mading Ngor as saying that he was "waterboarded" by security agents while in detention.

"That moment, they came back to me and threw me into their car. I was taken to the prison where they waterboarded me. While in prison, they said, 'We are going to baptize you for second time and you will see it today. They continued to waterboard until they realized my clothes were all wet and stick to my body,'" Mading was quoted as saying.

"They then started hitting and beating me up anyhow; many things did happened to me. They moved us from that prison to another military prison because one of them said we were not supposed to be in the first prison," he said.

Mading was arrested last week while covering a demonstration by Juba residents who protested the demolition of their houses. He was released two days later without having been charged.