Leading Sudan independent newspaper closed

Feb 1, 2007 (KHARTOUM) — Sudanese authorities closed a leading independent Arabic paper despite a new constitution enshrining press freedom, accusing it of illegally publishing articles about the beheading of a Sudanese journalist.

The al-Sudani daily had become one of the most popular papers since reopening in Sudan last year. Editor-in-chief Mahjoub Erwa said on Thursday he was appealing to the Ministry of Justice.

“I was detained for five hours yesterday and then my paper was stopped by the attorney general completely,” he told Reuters. “They said we had breached criminal law.”

The Ministry of Justice had prohibited publication of any articles related to the case of Mohamed Taha, the editor of al-Wifaq paper who was kidnapped and beheaded last year, until the investigation had ended.

But Erwa said the investigation had ended and the case had already gone to court.

“Ths is ridiculous and it is quite a funny excuse,” he said. “We didn’t write anything to jeopardise the court case.”

A source in national security confirmed the matter had gone to court, but said the order banning any publication on the Taha case had not actually been lifted yet.

Many other Sudanese papers have published details of the court case.

Erwa said the authorities were using this as an excuse to ban his paper because it was one of the most independent newspapers in Sudan.

The al-Sudani paper was stopped from publishing in Sudan in 1994 under emergency law and reopened last year.

Erwa said his paper, which also publishes to a wide audience in the Gulf and Saudi Arabia, had a readership of about 100,000 Sudanese.

(Reuters)