Pre-print censorship by security forces resumes in Sudan
SOAT
Sudan Organisation Against Torture
Human Rights Alert: 12 September 2006
Pre-print censorship has resumed in Sudan despite constitutional guarantees for the respect of freedom of expression and the media. Over the past week, teams of Security Officers have reportedly toured print and newsrooms in Khartoum to issue warnings and conduct pre-print inspections of newspapers in order to censor media coverage of recent events.
On the evening of 6 September 2006 a group of Security Officers reportedly toured newspaper print rooms and ordered newspapers to refrain from publishing any information on police brutality, mass arrests and detentions which took during the demonstrations held in Khartoum on 30 August and 6 September 2006. Newspapers were further warned to remove references to the large scale and number of demonstrations that were held throughout the country, including in Sinnar and Al Obeid.
Over the past week, Chief Editors have also reportedly been warned to refrain from publicising or discussing the abduction and murder of Mohamed Taha Mohamed Ahmed, late publisher and editor-in-Chief of Alwifaq Arabic language daily newspaper.
At least two newspapers have been forcibly censored in the past week;
On 11 September 2006 Security Officers visited the offices of al Sahafa Arabic language daily newspaper and ordered that a number of articles and columns be removed prior to printing. Two articles removed related to a meeting convened by journalists to discuss the abduction and murder of the late Mohamed Taha Mohamed Ahmed, publisher and editor-in-Chief of Alwifaq Arabic language daily newspaper whose decapitated body was found in Kalakla district, Khartoum on 6 September 2006. A daily column written by Hayder al Mukashfi (m) was also removed.
On the evening of 6 September 2006, a team of Security Officers from the Press and Media Department of the National Security Bureau visited the print room of Ray al Shaap (“Opinion of the People”) Arabic language daily newspaper and ordered the removal of references to demonstrations which had been held earlier on the same day in Khartoum, 6 September 2006. Ray al Shaap is a newspaper belonging to the Popular National Congress party (PNC). Security Officers ordered the removal of the front page headline and the entirety of text on page three of the paper. The paper went to print without a front page headline or page three.
Prominent journalist Haj Warag (m) has reportedly refrained from writing his daily column in al Sahafa in protest of the press censorship.
Background
On Wednesday 30 August 2006 and Wednesday 6 September riot police and security personnel violently broke up peaceful demonstrations in Khartoum. Police and Security Officers fired tear gas on peaceful demonstrators, beat demonstrators and arbitrarily arrested scores of individuals, many of whom were subjected to summary trials shortly after their arrest.
The “pre-print” censorship visits by a team of Security Officers took place on the night of the second set of demonstrations held in Khartoum on 6 September 2006 in an apparent attempt to downplay the scale and impact of the demonstrations and silence opposition to the official response to the protests.
SOAT calls on the Government of National Unity to:
– Respect constitutional safeguards for the right to freedom of expression and media as enshrined in Article 39 of the Bill of Rights of the Interim National Constitution which provides that “every citizen shall have an unrestricted right to the freedom of expression, reception of information, publication, and access to the press without prejudice to order, safety or public morals as determined by law (39(1))” and that “the State shall guarantee the freedom of the press and other media as shall be regulated by law in a democratic society” (39 (2)).
– End restrictions on freedom of the press, allow full and open reporting and comment upon the current state of affairs in Sudan.
– Cease suspensions and imposition of pre-printing and post-printing censorship on newspapers, and allow full freedom of expression in accordance with international human rights standards.
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