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Africa Horn
Armed police raid south Sudan newspaper
2011-02-23
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 regionÂ’s declaration of independence in July.

Nhial Bol, editor-in-chief of the Citizen, said the newspaperÂ’s offices were raided early on Sunday by five policemen wearing civilian clothing, waving pistols and criticising the paperÂ’s 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 southÂ’s 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.
Good luck with that...
“We don’t have a law so police do not know what they can do ... they terrorise whoever they want,” Bol said. “They are refusing to investigate the officers who (carried out the raid) ... The media law may help in situations like this.”

The south’s 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

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