South Sudan was this year ranked 140th out of 180 countries in RSF's global press freedom index
The
body of a South Sudanese journalist abducted almost four months ago was
found on a farm this week, press freedom group Reporters Without Borders
said
The body of a South Sudanese journalist abducted almost four months ago was found on a farm this week, press freedom group Reporters Without Borders said Wednesday.
RSF urged South Sudan's authorities "to shed all possible light" on the murder of freelance reporter Isaac Vuni,
who was kidnapped on June 4 along with his brother from the family's
home in southern Kerepi, near the Ugandan border. Responsibility for the
abduction was never claimed.
Vuni's relatives told the independent Sudan Tribune newspaper that his body was discovered on a farm outside Kerepi, RSF said in a statement. His brother has yet to be found.
It
said that a witness had told the South Sudan Liberty News website at
the time that the abductors wore the same military dress as the "Tiger
Battalion", President Salva Kiir's bodyguards."We
condemn Isaac Vuni's foul murder and call on the authorities to conduct
an investigation to identify those responsible and bring them to
justice," said Clea Kahn Sriber, the head of RSF's Africa desk.
Vuni,
who often wrote for the Sudan Tribune, had been arrested in Juba in
2009 after reporting that members of the Sudan People's Liberation Army
and the South Sudanese government were implicated in a financial
scandal.
He was also detained for several weeks in 2011 during a crackdown on local journalists.
Seven
journalists were killed in South Sudan last year, according to another
media rights group, the Committee to Protect Journalists.
RSF
said journalists have been regularly targeted since the civil war began
in 2013, with many held incommunicado, including Radio Miraya's George
Livio -- now held incommunicado for more than two years.
South
Sudan was this year ranked 140th out of 180 countries in RSF's global
press freedom index, 15 places lower than the previous year.
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