David Ayuel, one of the Lawyers representing Diing and protestors said the journalist was arrested while covering a peaceful protest against the high cost of living in Juba a week ago.

Lawyer Ayuel stated that five protestors who were arrested along with Journalist Diing were also released on bail.

He said one of the protesters who was shot in the leg by the police is now nursing a gunshot wound.

According to Ayuel, the Voice of American reporter was charged under section 82 of the South Sudan Penal code for possessing items or materials that could be used for committing the crime.

“Remember, there was an application for bail which was rejected by the public prosecutor attorney at Malakia police,” Ayuel told Eye Radio on Monday.

“We actually appealed the same appeal to the senior prosecutor attorney who later granted Diing a strong bail, so, she has been released this morning,

“Diing was charged under section 82 and that is the position that she has taken part in possessing items or materials that could be used for crime or something and that is still under investigation and that is the reason why she has to bail out until further notice.”

The protesters, mainly young people, took to the streets to complain about the high transport fares and fuel prices.

They also demanded the unity government to address the unemployment and insecurity in the country.

Lawyer David Ayuel said the protesters too have been released on bail.

“We were following all the cases of the protesters and because they have the same fine, they are all granted bail. So they have all been bailed out,” Lawyer Ayuel said.

For his part, the Chairperson for the Union of Journalists of South Sudan, Oyet Patrick pointed out that the arrest of the female Journalist should not scare other Journalists from covering events that are of public interest.

“It [arrest] should not scare Journalists from covering any event which is in the public interest, it shouldn’t scare anybody,” said Oyet.

“It is unfortunate but one thing which is positive is that the law is there and another thing is that we have seen a lot of support from other media organizations,

“We got a lot of support from even political leaders, we got a lot of support from the bar association and from various law firms that actually came to offer service. They did not ask to be paid money to do this work.”