Journalists arrested for sharing video of an African president urinating on himself during the national anthem

• Six journalists were arrested after a video of South Sudan's president peeing himself went viral.
• President Salva Kiir, 71, was filmed in public urinating on himself and appearing to not notice.

South Sudanese authorities have arrested six journalists on suspicion of their involvement in the circulation of footage of the country's president urinating on himself.

Journalists filmed the 71-year-old President Salva Kiir in public, where he was standing for the national anthem at a ceremony for a road opening in December, urinating on himself and appearing to not realize it.

When President Kiir looked down and saw what was happening, cameras turned away.

Authorities arrested six journalists from the state broadcaster, The South Sudan Broadcasting Corporation, last week after the footage went viral on social media, thought the corporation never broadcast it on television.

The journalists are Joseph Oliver and Mustafa Osmal, camera operators; Victor Lado, a video editor; Jacob Benjamin, a contributor; and Cherbek Ruben and Joval Toombe, control-room employees; Patrick Oyet, the president of the Union of Journalists of South Sudan, told Reuters.

Oyet added that the journalists "are suspected of having knowledge on how the video of the president urinating himself came out," and added that "we are concerned because those who are detained now have stayed longer than what the law says."

Oyet did not immediately respond to Insider's request for an update.

Muthoki Mumo, the sub-Saharan Africa representative of the international organization the Committee to Protect Journalists, said the arrests "matches a pattern of security personnel resorting to arbitrary detention whenever officials deem coverage unfavorable." She added that, "South Sudanese authorities should immediately and unconditionally release all journalists detained this week and ensure the press can work freely."

The video of the incident has sparked debates online surrounding the journalists, their arrest, and President Kiir's health.

Tweeting in support of the South Sudanese president, the Nigerian senator Shehu Sani said: "This may be a urinary sickness or an extreme act of patriotism; refusal to excuse himself while the national anthem was being played."

Others called for the 71-year-old president to retire. For example, Esther Ang'awa, a Kenyan lawyer, said, "I expected President Kiir to have honorably retired on health grounds by now."

Kiir has been the president of South Sudan since its independence in 2011.