Sudan president lifts press censorship but warns from ‘exceeding red line’
September 27, 2009 (KHARTOUM) — The Sudanese president Omer Hassan Al-Bashir today instructed the National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS) to cease pre-publication censorship on newspapers effective immediately, according to state media.
Moreover, the NISS has proposed a ‘Journalistic Honor Accord’ by which journalist agree to exercise “self-censorship” by avoiding writing on certain topics likely to be removed under normal circumstances.
The enactment of the accord was delayed till after the Eid holidays but no new date has been set.
Bashir in a meeting with the ‘Journalistic Honor Accord’ working group hailed the initiative saying that “as long as the journalists agree to exercise self-censorship on their own we will instruct to lift censorship immediately”.
However, the Sudanese president said that editor in chiefs should “avoid what leads to exceeding the red lines and avoid mixing what is patriotic and what is destructive to the nation, sovereignty, security, values and its morality”.
He also said that newspaper publications must not “smear the reputation of Sudan internally or externally and not propagate crime” adding that the Sudanese society is in good shape compared to other countries.
Any newspaper breaching these conditions will be subject to “harsh sanction”.
The new press law adopted by the general assembly last June prohibits the media from “provoking religious or ethnic or racial sedition or calling for war or violence,” while “respecting and protecting public ethics, religious values”.
However, Sudanese editors speaking to Reuters reacted cautiously to the announcement.
“It is a very important move,” said the editor of independently-owned Al-Khartoum newspaper Fadlallah Mohamed.
“Censorship is contrary to free press in Sudan. We are expecting the general election. It is very important to have a free press in such circumstances.”
Sudan is due to hold national elections in April 2010 under the terms of a faltering 2005 peace deal that ended the country’s north-south civil war.
Adil Al-Baz, editor-in-chief of political daily Al-Ahdath, also welcomed the move but said it was unclear how the government would deal with media that broke the code of conduct.
“Perhaps they will to go to court or punish the newspaper by closing it. There is always a risk in this profession.”
Sudan’s Ajras Al-Huriya newspaper, linked to the former southern rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM), warned that journalists would still face pressure when writing about Darfur and other highly-charged topics.
“There is no way they [the security services] are going to tolerate anything about security, about the International Criminal Court,” said deputy editor-in-chief Fayiz Al-Silaik.
(ST)