January 7, 2023
Baghdad / Obelisk: The National Union of Journalists in South Sudan said, on Saturday 01/07/2023, that six journalists were arrested for circulating a video clip showing President Salva Kiir apparently urinating on himself on an official occasion.
The video, from December, showed a dark spot on the gray trousers of the 71-year-old president as he stood while performing the national anthem during the opening ceremony of a new road. The clip was never broadcast on television, but it was later circulated on social media.
Patrick Awet, president of the South Sudan Journalists Union, said the journalists, who work for the state-run South Sudan Radio and Television Corporation, were arrested on Tuesday and Wednesday.
They suspect they know how the video of the president urinating on himself came out, he told Archyde.com.
South Sudan’s Information Minister Michael Makuei and National Security Service spokesman David Komori did not respond to requests for comment.
Kiir has been the president of South Sudan since the country’s independence in 2011, and government officials have repeatedly denied rumors circulating on social media that his health is not good.
“We are concerned that detainees are held longer than what is stipulated in the law, and the law allows the authorities in South Sudan to detain suspects for only 24 hours before bringing them to trial,” Awett added.
Muthuki Momo, CPJ’s Sub-Saharan African representative, said the incident fits a pattern of security personnel arbitrarily detaining people when officials deem inappropriate coverage.
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