|
Armed police raid south Sudan newspaper
JUBA, Sudan - Armed south Sudanese police raided an independent newspaper, its editor said on Tuesday, raising fears of a crackdown on press freedom ahead of the regions declaration of independence in July.Nhial Bol, editor-in-chief of the Citizen, said the newspapers offices were raided early on Sunday by five policemen wearing civilian clothing, waving pistols and criticising the papers content. They were carrying pistols ... they were yelling that we were writing nonsense, Bol said. They were from a branch of the police, I recognised one of them from a function I attended. Bol said he thought the raid was in retaliation for a recent article he wrote saying that the souths police force was a cause of insecurity and lacked good leadership. He said interior ministry officials had told him to stop criticising the police in print. Southern media leaders hope press freedom will be better protected when a media bill now awaiting parliamentary approval becomes law.
The souths information minister, Barnaba Marial Benjamin, said This was an isolated incident by the police ... of which the internal affairs ministry knew nothing. Posted by: Steve White 2011-02-23 |
|
| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=316696 |