Six journalists in South Sudan have been arrested over the circulation of footage appearing to show President Salva Kiir wetting himself, media rights groups say.
In December, a video shared on social media appeared to show Mr Kiir urinating on himself as the national anthem played at a function.
Six staff from the state broadcaster were detained this week.
Patrick Oyet, president of the South Sudan Union of Journalists, told Reuters that the journalists “are suspected of having knowledge on how the video of the president urinating himself came out”.
The Union of Journalists of South Sudan (UJOSS) – which had initially denied reports that journalists had been arrested over the video – called for a “speedy conclusion” to the investigation.
“If there is a prima facie case of professional misconduct or offence then let authorities expedite an administrative or legal process to address the issue in a fair, transparent [sic] and in accordance with the law,” the union added.
The South Sudan Broadcasting Corporation (SSBC) says the footage was never aired.
The arrests match “a pattern of security personnel resorting to arbitrary detention whenever officials deem coverage unfavourable”, said CPJ’s sub-Saharan Africa representative, Muthoki Mumo, calling for their unconditional release.
South Sudan Information Minister Michael Makuei told Voice of America that people should wait to learn why the journalists were detained.
Rights groups have frequently called on the South Sudanese authorities to stop harassing and threatening journalists.
Mr Kiir became the first president of South Sudan – Africa’s newest country – in 2011.
But the country has suffered numerous crises since then, enduring brutal conflict, political turmoil, natural disasters and hunger.
On Friday, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) reported that six journalists for the state-run South Sudan Broadcasting Corporation (SSBC) are been detained by the country’s National Security Service under suspicion of an unauthorised release of the footage.
The CPJ, citing media reports and people who spoke on condition of anonymity, named the detainees as control room director Joval Tombe, camera operator and technician Victor Lado, camera operators Joseph Oliver and Jacob Benjamin, camera operator and technician Mustafa Osman, and control room technician Cherbek Ruben.
Muthoki Mumo, CPJ’s sub-Saharan Africa representative, said the arrests match a “pattern of security personnel resorting to arbitrary detention whenever officials deem coverage unfavourable”.
“Authorities should unconditionally release these six SSBC employees and ensure that they can work without further intimidation or threat of arrest,” Mumo said.
Citing an anonymous state television employee, independent news website Sudans Post reported police had been searching for the journalist who filmed Kiir’s accident. An SSBC official told independent outlet Radio Tamazuj the broadcaster did not air the footage.
The video was widely shared on social media last month, prompting questions over the 71-year-old president’s state of health and fitness to govern a nation grappling with conflict, starvation and climate change. But it also sparked fierce debate over the ethics of posting such footage on social media and allegations of lack of empathy towards an elder.
Kiir has ruled over South Sudan since its independence in 2011, a presidency marred by fighting with a splinter group of the ruling Sudan People’s Liberation Movement – resulting in hundreds of thousands dead and giving rise to sexual violence, crackdowns on opposition and political corruption.
No elections have been held in the country since Kiir took power, though a vote is scheduled for 2024
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