Al-Jazeera English suspended in South Sudan
| Publisher | Reporters Without Borders |
| Publication Date | 3 May 2017 |
| Cite as | Reporters Without Borders, Al-Jazeera English suspended in South Sudan, 3 May 2017, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/590a06cc4.html [accessed 7 June 2023] |
| Disclaimer | This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States. |
Reporters Without Borders (RSF) condemns the decision by South Sudan's Media Authority to suspend the activities of the Al-Jazeera English bureau in Juba until further notice.
The Media Authority, whose members are appointed by President Salva Kiir, issued its order on 1 May. The bureau's staff is banned from covering anything to do with South Sudan.
The ban follows a series of Al-Jazeera reports about the ongoing clashes between government forces and rebel troops. The Qatari TV news channel reported on 20 April that many civilians had been displaced by fighting in the southern county of Kajo-Keji. Its references to the significant losses sustained by the government forces in the course of this fighting seem to upset the authorities.
RSF regards the closure of the Al-Jazeera bureau in Juba as an attack on media pluralism and the freedom to inform.
South Sudan has fallen 30 places in RSF's World Press Freedom Index since the start of the civil war and is ranked 145th out of 180 countries in the 2017 Index.
