Tag: ‘wetting
Six journalists arrested after TV cameras filmed South Sudan president ‘wetting himself during national anthem’
SIX journalists have been arrested after footage appeared to show the South Sudan president wetting himself.
A dark stain was seen spreading down President Salva Kiir’s trousers with a wet patch forming on the floor as he stood for the national anthem at an event last month.
Footage showed a dark stain spreading down President Salva Kiir’s trousers[/caption]
South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir[/caption]
The 71-year-old leader was seen looking down at the stain while leaning on his walking stick before the camera panned away.
The national journalists’ union said the six journalists detained over the footage work for the South Sudan Broadcasting Corporation.
They were arrested on Tuesday and Wednesday, it said.
Union president Patrick Oyet named the journalists as cameramen Joseph Oliver and Mustafa Osman, video editor Victor Lado, contributor Jacob Benjamin, and Cherbek Ruben and Joval Toombe from the control room.
Mr Oyet said: “We are concerned because those who are detained now have stayed longer than what the law says.”
The law in South Sudan states people should be detained for a maximum of 24 hours before appearing before a judge.
The Committee to Protect Journalists said the journalists are under investigation over the footage that went viral on social media in December.
CPJ’s sub-Saharan Africa representative Muthoki Mumo said the arrests match “a pattern of security personnel resorting to arbitrary detention whenever officials deem coverage unfavourable”.
“Authorities should unconditionally release these six SSBC employees and ensure that they can work without further intimidation or threat of arrest,” he said.
The Union of Journalists of South Sudan called for a “speedy conclusion” of the investigation, who it said were suspected of “having knowledge of the release of ‘a certain footage’ to the public”.
“If there is a prima facie case of professional misconduct or offence then let authorities expedite an administrative or legal process to address the issue in a fair, transparent (manner) and in accordance with the law,” it said.
South Sudan Information Minister Michael Makuei told Voice of America radio that “people should wait to learn why the journalists were detained”.
Kiir, 71, oversaw the birth of South Sudan as an independent nation after it broke free from Sudan in July 2011.
But the world’s youngest country has lurched from crisis to crisis since – facing brutal conflict, political turmoil, natural disasters and hunger.