6 journalists detained in South Sudan over viral video of President Kiir
Six journalists have been detained in South Sudan over the leaked video of President Salva Kiir that went viral, the Union of Journalists of South Sudan (UJOSS) has said.
Joval Tombe, Cherbek Ruben, Victor Lado, Joseph Oliver, Jacob Benjamin, and Mustafa Osman – all working for the state-run broadcaster South Sudan Broadcasting Corporation (SSBC) – were arrested this week, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).
They work for SSBC, which did not air the viral footage.
Local station Radio Tamazuj cited an anonymous journalist from the SSBC as saying that the footage came from the public broadcaster, “yet we as SSBC did not broadcast any news related to that video.”
The CPJ called for the immediate and unconditional release of the scribes.
As of Friday evening, CPJ said the six remained in detention at the National Security Service headquarters known as Blue House.
