Juba Monitor newspaper closed

JUBA – A court in South Sudan’s capital Juba has ordered the immediate and temporal closure of the Juba Monitor newspaper, freezing its assets including bank accounts of the Grand Africa Media Services Company (GAMSCO), the mother company of the Juba Monitor.

This is after the family of late Alfred Taban, the founder of the company and largest shareholder, launched a court case against the management after it reportedly refused to give role to the heirs of Taban nor paying them their father’s share.

Presiding judge at Kator Court, Justice Mujahid Abdalla Akol, said in his judicial ruling that the Juba Monitor and GAMSCO will stay closed until the court passes the final ruling on the case between heirs of the late Alfred Taban Logune & Others versus GAMSCO shareholders.

The Court also directed appointments of three persons, two from the side of the case and a person from the Court to protect the assets of the newspaper and the company.

The case would be heard on 25 April 2022.

The dispute between the heirs of Alfred Taban and some shareholders begun in 2020, just a year following Taban’s death in Uganda, after the shareholders left Taban’s children out of the business and claimed the right of the Juba Monitor’s trade mark.