Sudan press body suspends Al-Jareeda over complaint by electricity ministry
June 30, 2016 (KHARTOUM) -The Sudanese National Council for Press and Publications ( NCPP) has decided to suspend Al-Jareeda newspaper for one day following a complaint by the Ministry of Water Resources, Irrigation and Electricity.
“Accordingly, the newspaper decided not to run on Friday”, he said.
The NCPP is state-run body that licenses newspapers and registers journalists across the country.
The NCPP complaint panel said that the ministry of water resources, irrigation and electricity lodged a complaint against the newspaper on 17 May in connection with Ma warra al-khabar column “Behind News” written on 2 May by Mohamed wida’a.
The journalists body said the ministry has been affected negatively by some phrases mentioned in the column such as” how can the electricity supply be improved with the corruption of the ministry which smells out from China to Malaysia and from Turkey to the Gulf”.
It has also referred to phrases like “how can the situation be improved while the Chinese companies swallowed up all oil revenues in phantom electricity and railway projects”.
Therefore, the NCPP has announced summoning the editor in chief for a hearing session on 29 May to allow him using his right to react.
“The editor in chief has said the article is about the current situation of electricity, the failure of the Merowe Dam in north Sudan to generate sufficient power and a number of the administrative issues which failed to provide electricity supply,” the council said.
According to the NCCP, the writer has claimed ownership of documents supporting what he has written in this regard.
The press council said the legal counsellor has been assigned to study the documents presented by the editor in chief, and it was clear that the documents do not prove that the corruption charges he rose.
The committee said the other documents have proven the failure of the writer to present a cohesive defence that confirms the correctness of the information he published.
Al-Jareeda has been the most censored and confiscated newspaper by the security authorities.
Most of the Sudanese newspapers complain from the interference of security service, repeated punishments of suspension and prevention of distribution.
The NCPP rarely interferes to stop the security punishments although it is the official body responsible for running the work of newspapers in the Sudan.
(ST)