The manager of a community radio station in South Sudan’s Western Equatoria State says he was detained for 20 hours because he refused to play a recording of a speech by a government official.

Benedictson Ezikia James, radio manager of Maridi FM, was asked by security personnel in Maridi to report to their office yesterday morning. 

He was kept there for about 20 hours: “I was released around 8:00 this morning,” he told Radio Tamazuj today.

The radio manager said that his detention was related to coverage of a rally held on Wednesday by the County Commissioner and Deputy Foreign Minister Bashir Gbandi – who hails from Maridi and was visiting the area from Juba.

After the rally a government press officer came to the station with recordings from the rally and demanded that they be played, according to Benedictson. He explained that he refused to play the clips because Maridi FM had already independently covered the rally and already once had played recordings from the rally.

“The problem is that I refused to play the commissioner’s message,” he said.

During his detention yesterday, Benedictson was told to wait for the commissioner who would come to meet him. But the commissioner never came. He was held overnight and released by the National Security Service personnel this morning.

In spite of his release, Benedictson says he is still “under their custody.” He noted, “I’m released but they will call me at any time.”

Maridi FM is an independent radio station run by the Maridi Service Agency. The detention of the station’s manager has affected the operations of the station. As of this morning the station was playing only music, without any news or presentation, and journalists were avoiding the station for fear of being arrested.