Sudan releases journalists imprisoned for defaming government

November 29, 2007 (KHARTOUM) — Sudan on Thursday released two journalists who spent almost two weeks in jail for refusing to pay a fine of $5,000 for defaming the security forces.

Editor-in-Chief Mahjoub Erwa of the popular independent al-Sudani paper and his deputy Noureddine Medani were convicted of defamation and ordered to pay $5000 each in fines, a huge amount for Sudan’s papers who struggle to make ends meet.

“We decided not to pay it to send a message to the government that imprisonment for your views is not right,” Erwa told Reuters from the jail ahead of his release.

Al-Sudani appealed and the fine was brought down to $3,500 in total which they agreed to pay.

Erwa said Medani had written an article criticising the security forces for detaining four journalists who were trying to cover a protest in the northern town of Kajbar when police opened fire on the crowd killing four people.

They sued for defamation and won. Erwa said only individuals and not government institutions should be allowed to sue for defamation.

“It is legal to criticise the government,” he added. The two had been in jail since November 17.

The editor of another smaller cultural paper, Mona Abu al-Azaim, was also imprisoned for four days when she refused to pay a similar fine after her paper printed a press release from a Sudanese aid agency working on AIDS which they later denied having released.

“If the papers have to pay fines such as these we would all close down,” she said. Her paper paid the fine and she was released from jail.

(Reuters)