Sudan’s spy-chief defends extraordinary measures against newspapers

December 20, 2015 (KHARTOUM) – The director of Sudan’s National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS) Mohamed Atta has held the newspapers responsible for the exceptional measures taken against the press by his agency.

In an interview with Al-Sudani newspaper Sunday, Atta said that the measures taken against newspapers are not “arbitrary” but based upon the law, noting they are forced to take those measures.

He accused the Sudanese press of using sensationalism and exaggeration to attract readers, citing newspapers reports on child abuse incidents in school buses.

Last May, the NISS seized copies of 10 newspapers and suspended four of them indefinitely. The move was a reaction to reports published by those newspapers on incidents of sexual harassment and child rape taking place inside school buses.

“Sometimes we are forced to take an action against a major violation [by the newspapers] but strangely, when we suspended ten newspapers for one day for reporting the child abuse incidents, the issue was not directed against the NISS or its personnel but rather the whole [Sudanese] society,” he said.

“That is a sort of mistakes that newspapers commit on daily bases, we wish to reach a point where we aren’t forced to take any action [against the newspapers]”, he added.

The spy chief defended his agency’s move to suspend the ten newspapers, describing the child abuse story as “untrue, exaggerated and unfounded lie”.

He acknowledged that seizure and suspension of the newspapers could distort the image of the freedoms in Sudan, accusing the journalists of being responsible for that distortion.

It is noteworthy that NISS seized copies of al-Tayyar newspapers in the early hours of last Monday from the printing house without giving reasons. On Tuesday, the newspaper was suspended indefinitely.

Sudan’s constitution guarantees freedom of expression but laws subordinate to the constitution such as the National Security Forces Act of 2010 contains articles that can be potentially used to curtail press freedom and instigate legal proceedings against newspapers and individual journalists.

Sudanese journalists work under tight daily censorship controls exercised by the NISS.

Journalists say that NISS uses seizures of print copies of newspapers, not only to censor the media but also to weaken them economically.

(ST)