Sudanese paper to restart after suspension

KHARTOUM, Feb 24 (Reuters) – The independent Sudanese daily al-Ayyam, suspended in November for articles the government said threatened the state, will resume publication this weekend, an editor said on Tuesday.

“We were told personally by…the head of the national press council yesterday and we received a summons from the police today to go and see them to finish the legal procedures,” layout editor Wael Mahjoub told Reuters.

“We expect the first edition to be published on Saturday or Sunday,” he added.

President Omar Hassan al-Bashir issued a decree last August lifting censorship of newspapers by the security services. But journalists say three newspapers have been temporarily suspended since then for various periods.

Al-Ayyam editor said after the suspension in November that authorities had challenged some articles, many of which were about an insurgency in the western Darfur region of Sudan.

A member of the European Parliament said on Monday the government was deliberately preventing journalists from visiting Darfur to dampen coverage of the escalating conflict there.

Two main rebel groups launched a revolt in the remote Darfur last February accusing the government of neglecting the poor area and arming Arab militias to burn and loot African villages.

Independent reports of the conflict are rare as government travel permits to the arid region are difficult to obtain.

Mahjoub said the charges against al-Ayyam were not dismissed, but suspended. Journalistic sources said this meant authorities could still use the charges against the newspaper in the future.

Mahjoub said the paper was assured they would be treated no differently to any of the other Sudanese dailies.

“No conditions were imposed on the paper. We will be subject to the same rules as the other Sudanese newspapers,” he said.