South Sudan newspaper closed

On Thursday, one day after the closure of daily newspaper The Nation Mirror, the government of South Sudan had still not given an official reason for its action. The paper had published a front-page story on a US-based watchdog's investigation into corruption by top government officials in the country. The report released on Monday by The Sentry, a new investigation unit co-founded by US actor George Clooney, accused South Sudan's leaders, among them President Salva Kiir and his former deputy Riek Machar, of profiteering during the civil war. To find out more, DW talked to Wol Deng Atak, editor-in-chief of The Nation Mirror.

DW: Please take us through the course of events.

Wol Deng Atak: We ran a news article on the Sentry corruption reports implicating President Salva Kiir Mayardit, former first vice-president Riek Machar and top generals in the army. The people of South Sudan deserve to know what is unfolding within their country, and our reporting on that angered the national security.

We earlier ran an article by one of our contributors which the national security was not happy about and they demanded The Nation Mirror should bring the author to their office so they can arrest him. The newspaper turned that down and they threatened to close it.

So what is the way forward for you now?

We will still try to reason with the national security in Juba and if that fails we may go to court.

Did they give any reasons for the closure?

They just summoned the editors into the office and announced that the newspaper had been closed. On Tuesday a security officer came into our office and raised a complaint about the article that we published. He asked why we were the only newspaper to publish this article. It was like giving a kind of warning. On Wednesday morning we were just told that the newspaper has been closed and that the orders came from above. We were all told to leave. So I am linking it to the visit by the security officer to our premises. And lastly, the minister of Information told UN radio in Juba that The Nation Mirror is a security threat but we cannot see how this can be. In my opinion, if anybody is actually a security threat, then it is the way Juba is handling the state of affairs of the country.

Do you think these actions could indicate some danger for journalists working in South Sudan?

Last year the president threated journalists and said if they think this country does not take life, then they will see - and the following day a journalist was killed. Personally I am not in Juba now because the national security was not happy about my column. They threatened me, especially after I stepped down from a body that advocates the right of access to information for the people of South Sudan, the reason being that there was no political will to have institutions established and run independently without interference by the government. I ran away because they wanted me, they searched my house and they were after me.

Wol Deng Atak is the editor-in-chief of The Nation Mirror.

Interview: Jane Ayeko-Kümmeth