The independent FM station, Eye Radio, is still off air for the fourth day today since it was shut down by authorities on Friday.

The management of the station informed the general public about the shutdown in the afternoon of the same day.

“At the moment, the management of Eye Radio is following up with authorities with the view to immediately resolve this matter,” the management said in a statement.

“We will continue to update our listeners and the general public if new information becomes available or when the station resumes broadcast,” it added.

Eye Radio, formerly known as the Sudan Radio Service, is an independent, popular, locally run nonprofit South Sudanese FM Radio station and is the leading source of news and information in South Sudan.

A public announcement on the radio a few minutes before the shutdown said:

“This is to inform you, our esteemed listener/reader that we’ve unfortunately indefinitely shut down our broadcast for reasons beyond our control. We apologize for any inconveniences caused.”

Later, the Chief Executive Officer of Eye Media, a South Sudanese NGO managing Eye Radio, said the shutdown was due to a short news clip of Dr Riek Machar played about a month ago when Dr Riek was leaving Khartoum for South Africa.

In that story, Dr Riek blamed the region and the UN for not coming up with an initiative. His remark came after the government in Juba said it would go ahead with the new First Vice President Taban Deng Gai in implementing the peace agreement.

Some members of the international community, including the US, had also said it wasn’t wise to take Dr Riek back to the docket.

Dr Riek fled Juba after clashes between his forces and those of President Salva Kiir at the presidential palace J1 in July, while the two leaders and other senior officials were in a meeting to discuss the security situation in Juba.

Below is the exact transcript of the 28-second clip tapped from al-Jazeera TV (Dr Riek spoke at a press conference):

“We did not see that there is an initiative from the region or the United Nations or the African Union to rescue the agreement. From our side the agreement has collapsed, or part of the government of national unity has collapsed since July events. We do not want violence.”