Sudan confiscates 17,000 copies of opposition paper
August 21, 2007 (KHARTOUM) — Sudanese authorities confiscated 17,000 copies of the opposition al-Rai al-Shaab daily on Tuesday for violating a ban on reporting about a thwarted plot to attack Western embassies in Khartoum.
Sudan found three arms caches in the capital last week and Foreign Ministry officials told the heads of the U.S., U.N., French and British missions in Sudan that they were the targets of plots involving “primitive” bombs.
Al-Rai al-Shaab’s Ashraf Mohamed said security had called the editor in chief on Friday to say all reporting on the plots was banned because it would damage the investigation.
The paper is allied to the opposition Popular Congress Party, led by Islamist Hassan al-Turabi.
“On Sunday the paper printed comments by the interior minister on the explosives and they (security) went to the printing press and took the article out, even though all the other papers printed the same comments that day,” Mohamed told Reuters.
He said on Tuesday the paper had an article explaining that it was the only publication banned from printing the interior minister’s comments.
“They went to the printing press and took all 17,000 copies of the paper,” he said, adding, “We are being targeted.”
Security officials were not immediately available to comment.
Journalist Mujaheed Abdullah from al-Rai al-Shaab was released this week after almost two months imprisonment after covering protests in northern Sudan against a planned dam during which police killed four people and injured 13 others.
“Security is waging an economic war against us — they have ordered all institutions and companies not to give us advertisements,” Mohamed said.
Sudanese papers make most of their revenue from adverts.
(Reuters)