South Sudan has arrested two state broadcast journalists for failing to ensure coverage of a crucial speech by President Salva Kiir, a government official said. The arrest has prompted an outcry from an international media watchdog.
Journalists often complain of persecution by the security services of the African republic that seceded from Sudan in 2011. That year, Juba authorities closed a newspaper after it criticised Kiir for allowing his daughter to marry a foreigner.
The government of South Sudan’s Western Bahr El Ghazal state said it had detained two senior workers at its broadcaster for
“administrative issues?? after the station failed to cover Kiir’s visit to the town of Wau last month.
?They are arrested simply because when the president arrived in Wau on December 22, 2012, he gave a very important speech,?? state information minister Derrick Alfred Uya told Reuters.
