Another Sudanese journalist jailed on rape case charges
July 25, 2011 (KHARTOUM) – Amal Habani, a Sudanese female journalist, was jailed on Tuesday for writing against the alleged rape of a female activist by security agents, in yet another case of targeting local journalists through legal proceedings.
The charges stem from an op-ed in which Habani fulminated against the country’s powerful National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS) on the grounds of the alleged rape in February of Safia Ishaq by three NISS agents.
Habani, who works for the privately-owned Arabic daily Al-Jaridah, refused to pay the fine and chose to go to prison. She was immediately transferred to Omdurman’s prison for women, multiple sources told Sudan Tribune.
Saad al-Din Ibrahim, Habani’s editor, was also ordered to pay a fine of 5000 Sudanese pounds (roughly 3000 USD).
Habani is one of several journalists awaiting trial on the same offenses after they all wrote articles condemning the NISS for Ishaq’s alleged rape.
Another female journalist, Fatima Ghazali, was the first to be tried earlier this month on the same case. She was convicted and sent to prison after she refused to pay her fine.
Reporters Without Borders, a Paris-based press-freedom watchdog, last month lamented “the disgraceful way the authorities are harassing and prosecuting journalists in Khartoum and the north of the country in an attempt to silence them and stop embarrassing revelations about human rights violation by the security forces.”
Last month, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), a New York-based advocacy group, said that Sudanese authorities continue to “aggressively” target individual journalists and publications through “contrived legal proceedings, politicized criminal charges, and confiscations.”
Results published as part of UNESCO 2011 World Press Freedom Day, Sudan ranks as 40 out of 48 in Sub-Saharan Africa for press freedom. Amnesty International described Sudan as a place where “freedom of speech is being so openly violated”.
(ST)
CD Chol
Another Sudanese journalist jailed on rape case charges
This is a big issue. People in the new Republic of South Sudan need to be able to speak against the government to hold them accountable for their actions, and people in the government need to be accountable. If the person doing the speaking is accountable to those in power if they say something that the government doesn’t want people to know, then this country will never be great the way it should be. Media is one form of accountability, and they should be allowed to do their job.
CD Chol
Another Sudanese journalist jailed on rape case charges
Just to clarify, since this did occur in the North, they should be held accountable for their actions as well. Yet with the new government in the south, we have an opportunity to create a legal system that can fix many of the issues that Sudan has faced for so many years.