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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 region’s declaration of independence in July. Nhial Bol, editor-in-chief of the Citizen, said the newspaper’s offices were raided early on Sunday by five policemen wearing civilian clothing, waving pistols and criticising the paper’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 south’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.
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 |