The security has released the journalists’ gadgets that were confiscated during the parliament budget disputes on Friday.
On Friday this week, two journalists belonging to Eye Radio and the City review were pulled out from covering a parliamentary session on budget deliberation where the oppositions parliamentarian from the SPLM-IO and SSOA walked out of the room after failing to agree with SPLM-IG and its allies over salary increment.
The journalists recorded the MPs commotion. The security interrupted the coverage and picked two journalists briefly and later released them without their gadgets.
‘’There was a debate at the parliament on the budget, many journalists were present and then disagreement erupted between the members of political parties and there was a misunderstanding between some security personnel and some journalists, the gadgets especially the camera were removed from the journalists because they were prevented from taking pictures at that time,’’ said Patrick Oyet Charles, president of the Union of Journalists of South Sudan.
Oyet said the gadgets were returned to the two journalists upon intervention from his office.
‘’Our vice president of the Union of Journalists of South Sudan was present at the parliament and when this occurred, she intervened by engaging with the security personnel till the cameras were returned late evening,”
In the same evening, the Association for Media Development in South Sudan welcomed the return of the gadgets of the two journalists after writing an appeal for release of the gadgets.
The advocacy body stated that the release of the gadgets is an indication that the concerned authorities acknowledged the importance of the media especially at a moment when the country prepares to go for elections.
