The South Sudan Journalists Association announced in a statement, on Friday, the release of the last two journalists who were arrested in January following publishing a video clip showing President Salva Kiir urinating during an official ceremony.
Seven journalists from the South Sudan Public Television Broadcasting Corporation (SSBC) were arrested in January. Five have since been released, including two on Tuesday.
The journalists were arrested as part of an investigation following a video clip that went viral on social media in December showing Kerr, 71, urinating during an official ceremony.
The video, posted on YouTube, shows President Kiir wearing his black hat and a light gray suit, with a dark stain on his pants.
In a statement published on Friday, the South Sudanese Journalists Union welcomed “the release of Garang John and Jacob Benjamin,” stressing that it will continue its struggle “to ensure that journalists work in a free and safe environment.”
South Sudan, a landlocked country in East Africa, is ranked 128th in terms of press freedom by the non-governmental organization Reporters Without Borders. The organization stresses that “press freedom is very dangerous in South Sudan,” where “threats and intimidation once morest journalists and the media continue.”
South Sudan gained its independence in 2011, but two years later it sank into a five-year civil war between rival rivals Riek Machar and Salva Kiir, which left nearly 400,000 dead and millions displaced.
The war officially ended in September 2018 with a peace agreement that stipulates the principle of power-sharing. But this agreement has been largely unimplemented, more than two years following the formation of a national unity government that included Kiir and his archenemy Machar, the current vice president.
The United Nations and the international community accuse South Sudanese leaders of maintaining the status quo, stoking violence, suppressing political freedoms and embezzling public funds.
