On Wednesday 2
November, Ngor Aguot Garang, a journalist at Sudan Tribune, was taken
into custody by South Sudan’s security services following the publication of an
opinion piece criticising South Sudan’s president Salva Kiir in The Destiny,
a newspaper which Ngor edits in Juba.
In the article, published in The
Destiny’s first edition on 26 October, its author Gengdit Ayok, who is also
the newspaper’s deputy editor in chief, said that that Kiir should not have
allowed his daughter to marry someone from outside South Sudan, claiming it was
unpatriotic.
Ayok’s comment piece, entitled ‘Nyan
Bany,’ literally meaning ’daughter of the president,’ questions why president
Salva Kiir married his daughter to an Ethiopian man, whom he constantly
referred to as a "foreigner."
"We condemn in the strongest
terms the arbitrary arrest of Ngor Aguot who has showed during the past several
years a very high sense of professionalism in his large coverage of political
and economic developments in South Sudan," Mohamed Nagi Sudan Tribune’s
editor in chief said in a press release
on Friday.
Friday’s statement called for
’Ngor’s immediate release’ asking ’civil society, press freedom groups, the
international community and other concerned actors to demand the South Sudanese
authorities [...] release Ngor immediately and to uphold the freedom of the
press.’
Sudan Tribune described Ngor’s detention as ’illegal’ and said that ’he
has not been charged with, nor has he committed any crime.’ Ngor is being held
in Juba at a prison near Jebel Market, Sudan Tribune understands.
Sources at The Destiny told Sudan
Tribune on Friday that they had received a letter, addressed to its editor
in chief, on Thursday 3 November from a senior security official accusing the
newspaper of failing to follow professional ethics and publishing illicit news,
which was defamatory in nature. The letter did not mention the actual article
which led to Ngor’s the arrest but it is widely thought to be due to Gengdit
Ayok’s opinion piece.
The Destiny newspaper has since been suspended by South Sudan’s
information ministry despite an apology from the newspaper. Ayok, is also
understood to have been suspended from his position. The Juba-based newspaper,
which only launched on 24 October is the English version of Al-Misier an
Arabic daily. Both are believed to be published by Naivasha Production Company
limited.
On Thursday NewSudanVision.com
reported that Ngor’s arrest happened after he was summoned for a meeting on
Tuesday with national security after the article was published in to the The
Destiny’s only edition.
As well as Ngor, the editor-in-chief
of Al-Misier, Atem Simon, and the president of the board of directors,
Dhieu Mathok, also attended the meeting NewSudanVision.com reported.
Abraham Malek, a senior editor with Al-Misier
said that the Arabic paper was still publishing, despite the closure of The
Destiny. “Until now, we don’t know where our colleague is, and what his
situation is going to be,” NewSudanVision.com reported Abraham as saying.
Press freedoms are uncertain in
South Sudan as there is no direct legislation enshrining freedom of expression
in the media. A recent report by the Committee to Protect Journalists
found that ’local journalists fear the former rebels turned government
officials still harbor a war mentality that is unaccustomed to criticism, and
that they are not prepared to extend the freedoms they fought hard to attain.’
South Sudan became independent in
July as part of a peace deal that ended decades of civil war with north Sudan.
"We are still recovering from a
war culture," Oliver Modi, chairman of the Union of Journalists of
Southern Sudan, told CPJ in September.
"There is just too much ignorance
toward the press. We are not used to systems, structures—even the media,"
he said. According to figures from the journalism union this is the ninth
attack against the freedom of the press this year.
(ST)
Below is the article, published in The
Destiny Newspaper on Wednesday, October 25, that is believed to have
triggered Ngor’s arrest.
Nyan Bany
By Dengdit Ayok
Juba, the temporal capital city of
our new born nation on Saturday, October 22, 2011 witnessed a disappointing
social episode that was found disgusting and denounced by many patriotic South
Sudanese across the country. Our revered and acclaimed President, Sir Salva
Kiir Mayardit, who is one of the symbols of our long historic struggle and
who is also a symbol of our sovereignty, dignity, integrity and source of our
national pride, handed over his beloved-beautiful elder daughter (Adut) to a
foreigner in a wedding ceremony held in the Catholic Cathedral at Rajaf.
The wedding raised our eyebrows
because we didn’t expect Nyan Beny (daughter of the President) to be married by
a foreigner when many national suit her profile for marriage; this without
saying that it matters not how long she may stay in her father’s house. A
wedding as we all know is a social function that people go to cheerfully with
women ululating. However, the wedding of Nyan Beny that took place last
Saturday was attended by a small crowd of people with clouds of sadness
gathered in their hearts as it was clear from their faces; because they were
upset by the decision taken by the President to give his daughter in wedding to
a stranger.
The wedding that could have been
attended by thousands of South Sudanese with elation and delight, to display
their traditional dances and turn it into a national wedding like the British
royal wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton, was reduced to a very low
morale standard function with the attendance of just a few government officials
and a minute crowd.
This wedding has not only shocked
and angered members of Kiir’s family, but divided it and turned its peace into
quarrels and squabbles, it has also shocked the whole nation; because Kiir is a
patriotic leader that fought two wars for the wellbeing of his people, a thing
which made him valued and highly respected by South Sudanese. But now that he
has given his daughter in wedding to an alien, he has to some extent reduced
himself in the eyes of his people.
I am writing about about Adut`s
wedding because my heart is in pain like the hearts of many zealous South
Sudanese who have opposed it, and I am happy that I have a public platform to
air out my wrath and the wrath of many fellow countrymen and women. By giving
his daughter to a foreigner, our President has stained his patriotism and
turned his leadership questionable in our eyes.
This wedding is a demonstration that
foreigners have not only monopolized our market, economy and robbed our
integrity after penetrating it, but it is also a demonstration that they have
taken over our national pride. What else is left if an alien could penetrate
all the hedges and invade the house of our President, eloped and impregnated
his daughter? Where were the security presidential personnel when that strange
guy entered the house of the President?
This wedding of the First Girl which
is supposed to be blessed by all South Sudanese including this author is
rejected and the religious leaders who blessed the couple in the house of God
regardless of their knowledge that she had conceived, have committed a great
sin against God for making unholy matrimony holy!
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