South Sudan’s Media Authority has dismissed a report by the UN Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan about the country’s civic space as “baseless propaganda” and lacking credibility.
The UN report, released last week, accused South Sudan of “entrenched suppression” of the civic space ahead of the country’s first elections since independence.
The report also said that the government’s security agencies controlled the media sector and suppressed any content that was considered critical or inconvenient to the government.
In a statement signed by its managing director Elijah Alier, the Media Authority said the report is a “total fabrication of the general situation” and that the “negative narratives of civic space and media freedom quoted in the report do not accurately confirm the real situation.”
Alier also said that the report lacks “reliability of sources, validity of information, concrete evidence, consultations that were not genuine, and did not give a chance for a right of reply to concerned entities such as the Media Authority.”
The media and civic space in South Sudan is severely restricted. The government has a long history of cracking down on independent media and civil society organizations.
In recent years, the government has passed laws that restrict freedom of expression and assembly.
The government’s security agencies also routinely harass and intimidate journalists and civil society activists.
There have been numerous reports of journalists being arrested, detained, and tortured. Civil society organizations have also been raided and shut down
