A newspaper opinion writer has been beaten and dumped at a graveyard in Juba, a civil society group has reported.

Community Empowerment for Progress says Joseph Chan Awer was found unconscious on Tuesday morning at Juba’s Rock City suburb in a bad condition.

Mr Joseph writes opinion articles in the Al-Mougif Arabic Daily Newspaper. His recent commentary is yet to be identified.

“The beating of Mr. Joseph demonstrates the change of the situation into negativity towards the media and journalists,” the civil rights group said in a statement.

It called upon the concerned authorities to investigate and bring the perpetrators to book.

It also said since the beginning of the year, it has “documented over 10 cases of media incidents which are disturbing and discouraging to media fraternity”.