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South Sudan media 'under attack,' watchdog warns
Southern Sudanese journalists are facing increasing intimidation as the security services clamp down on reporters ahead of landmark elections in April, a media rights watchdog warned on Friday.
The southern-based Agency for Independent Media (AIM) said it recorded several "disturbing reports" of the harassment of journalists across the autonomous South in 2010, including arrests and violence.
"South Sudan's media is under attack," said David De Dau, head of AIM.
"Journalists have been arrested, harassed, intimidated, threatened, humiliated, molested, tortured and detained for no clear reason," he told reporters in the southern capital.
One journalist in Unity State was beaten after security forces grew angry at comments made by the public on a call-in show on a community radio station, Dau said.
Journalists were also arrested in the states of Jonglei and Eastern Equatoria, he added.