Emmanuel Monychol Akop, the Editor-in-Chief of The Dawn Daily English Newspaper, was detained by South Sudan’s National Security Service (NSS) on Thursday, according to Patrick Oyet, President of the Union of Journalists of South Sudan (UJOSS).
Akop’s detention was confirmed after NSS agents reportedly visited The Dawn office in Juba on Thursday, where they held a meeting with the editor before taking him into custody. Since the arrest, Akop has not been heard from.
Oyet told Radio Tamazuj that no arrest warrant was presented to the staff, nor were they informed of the reasons for their boss’s detention.
“We are waiting to see if he will be produced in court, which may shed light on the reasons for his arrest,” Oyet said. “The staff at the newspaper remains in the dark about the specifics of Akop’s detention.”
Oyet emphasized that, regardless of whether the arrest is related to Akop’s work or personal matters, South Sudanese law mandates that any individual arrested be brought before a competent court within 24 hours.
South Sudan’s laws require that media-related issues be addressed through the Media Authority before any other institutions intervene.
The arrest raises concerns about the growing powers of the NSS under the National Security Service Act of 2014, which was amended in 2024. The law grants the NSS the authority to arrest individuals without a warrant, a provision that has drawn criticism from international human rights organizations and press freedom advocates, who warn that it could undermine civil liberties and press freedom.
Akop’s arrest adds to a troubling trend of harassment against journalists and media professionals in South Sudan, raising alarms among both local and international observers.
Efforts to contact John Kumuri, the NSS spokesperson, were unsuccessful.