![South Sudan journalists covering an even in the defunct Yei River state in 2016 [Photo via Facebook]](https://i0.wp.com/www.sudanspost.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Media.jpg?resize=1024%2C768&quality=89&ssl=1)
“In the first half of 2022 alone, there have been numerous incidents of human rights violations against journalists by the NSS. Eight reporters covering a press conference were detained by the NSS in February and had their recording devices and phones confiscated. Several of the journalists expressed concern that the NSS had extracted contacts and other information from their phones and that it was a threat to themselves and their families,” it said.
“A similar incident occurred in June, when the NSS detained at least nine journalists covering a Sudan People’s Liberation Movement in Opposition (SPLM-IO) press conference.101 One detained journalist said the security officers ‘threatened to deal with some of them,’” The Sentry said.
The report titled “Undercover Activities Inside the National Security Service’s Profitable Playbook” said that “Such incidents have rippling consequences on the state of journalism in South Sudan. Given the dangers of the job and the extremely low pay, many journalists leave the profession to pursue safer and more lucrative jobs elsewhere.”
“The result is that ‘journalism in South Sudan often fails to live up to ethical standards,’ according to the Ethical Journalism Network. The NSS also poses a major barrier to the free operation of South Sudan’s press,” it stressed.
The report further accused the NSS of distorting “and disrupts the flow of news in South Sudan by censoring the media, infiltrating news outlets, and engaging in outright violence and intimidation of reporters and editors. NSS agents are posted at Universal Printers, Garnish Printers, and RAK Media so that they can censor articles that they don’t approve of right before printing.”
