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Sudan Tribune

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Sudan’s pro-government TV station sacks producer over Yemen factory report

April 4, 2015 (KHARTOUM) – Sudan’s pro-government Ashorooq TV has fired one of its producers for airing a report on the explosion of a dairy factory in Yemen’s Hodeida port which killed dozens of workers this week.

Smoke rises from a milk factory hit by an air strike in Yemen's western port city of Houdieda o 1 April 2015 (Photo: Reuters)
Smoke rises from a milk factory hit by an air strike in Yemen’s western port city of Houdieda o 1 April 2015 (Photo: Reuters)
There are conflicting accounts on the cause with some residents and witnesses attributing it to airstrike by the Saudi-led military coalition and others to rockets fired from a nearby army base.

Sources at Ashorooq TV told Sudan Tribune that Asim Muhammad Ali, who was recently relocated to Khartoum from South Kordofan where he worked as a correspondent , received his formal dismissal notice for broadcasting this report “which lacked professionalism”.

Ali based his report on a story by Reuters which Ashorooq TV uses as one of its main news sources.

But an official in the TV station accused Ali of intentionally omitting portions of the Reuters story blaming the explosion on rockets from the army base rather than an airstrike which breached the principle of balance in reporting.

Multiple sources had said that Ashorooq TV management told Ali that the decision was made by influential government officials who viewed the report in question as contradicting the official state policy in support of the Yemen military campaign.

Sudan Tribune has been unable to reach Ali as he did not answer repeated phone calls.

The news about Ali’s dismissal were first reported by al-Tayar newspaper.

Sudan is a member of the Saudi-led military coalition dubbed as “Operation Firmness Storm” against the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen.

Sudanese president Omer Hassan al-Bashir told al-Masry al-Youm newspaper in Cairo on Monday that their participation in the coalition is “symbolic” consisting of 3 Russian Sukhoi-24 fighters and some transport planes.

“Sudanese pilots are representing you well as they fly their jets over the skies of Yemen in support of legitimacy and to defend the security of the Two Holy Mosques [in Saudi Arabia],” Bashir told a campaign rally in Central Darfur state capital of Zalingei on Wednesday.

“We tell our brothers in the coalition nations and particularly the brothers in the kingdom [of Saudi Arabia] that the Sudanese people are standing behind you and strongly support [Operation] Firmness Storm,” he added.

(ST)

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