The journalists walking out from the Office of the Internal Security Bureau after their release on Tuesday 22 Feb. 2022. Photo: Curtesy

The US government has condemned the recent brief detention of Journalists by the government of South Sudan and called for civic space.

Last month, 8 journalists and an activist were briefly detained by the National Security Service while covering a press conference at the national legislature.

The reporters were from different media houses in the capital, including an Eye Radio journalist.

The journalists went on an invite signed by about 19 legislators to lament on challenges facing the MPs in Juba.

Other issues in the agenda were the slow implementation of the peace agreement.

But the security personnel who were inside the premises reportedly intruded and ordered the MPs to call off the presser.

They also confiscated all the media gadgets and took the journalists to the office of the Internal Security Bureau within the August House.

According to one of the journalists who was at the scene, they were later transferred to the National Security office of the Political Bureau along Bilpam road.

The reporters spent nearly four hours before they were later released after an intervention by the President of the Union of Journalists in South Sudan.

Nearly two weeks later, Eye Radio’s News Editor Woja Emmanuel was kidnapped a few yards from Eye Radio’s office.

He later escaped from the abductors after they were confronted by a group of unknown armed men west of Rajaf in Juba.

Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the US ambassador to the United Nations said the Biden administration was concerned by the detention of the journalists.

This, the UN Security Council on Monday the US ambassador to the United Nations says this is hindering the country’s progress toward democracy in the country.

“The diminishing civic space in South Sudan is hindering the country’s progress toward democracy. In particular, the United States was seriously concerned by the detentions and arrest of journalists and civil rights activists by National Security Forces on February 22,” US ambassador to the United Nations said.

“Journalists and activists belong on the beat, they belong on the street; not in prison. The Government of South Sudan must respect the rights of all citizens in accordance with the transitional constitution.

“South Sudan needs to create an enabling environment for free and fair elections by respecting fundamental freedoms of expression, association, and peaceful assembly.”