Sudanese forces reportedly raid Al-Jazeera’s Khartoum office

Text of announcer-read report over video from the “Today’s harvest” news feature, broadcast by Qatari Al-Jazeera satellite TV

DOHA, Qatar, Dec 17, 2003 — A Sudanese security and police force stormed the Al-Jazeera office in Khartoum and confiscated transmission equipment and three cameras. This is despite the fact that the office director produced all the documents that permitted the equipment’s entry into Sudan.

Colleague Islam Salih, the director of the office, has recently received several threats from the Sudanese security authorities owing to reports that some Sudanese parties are not satisfied with the Al-Jazeera’s coverage of Sudanese developments.

It is to be recalled that Al-Jazeera has begun to transmit a series of programmes entitled “The Sudanese scene” [Arabic: Al- Mashhad al-Sudani] to discuss the peace file in Sudan by hosting government and opposition figures. The police released the office director after detaining him for more than two hours, during which his lawyer was present. The lawyer denied the existence of orders to detain or arrest him. The licensed equipment, however, is still confiscated. [Video shows people talking inside an office]

Source: BBC Monitoring Newsfile