Sudanese official in rare criticism of closing newspapers, far-right party
January 22, 2012 (KHARTOUM) – A senior official of Sudan’s ruling National Congress Party (NCP) has admonished security authorities about their decision to shut down a privately owned newspaper.
Al-Wan was closed down on 14 January by the National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS). The title’s editor, Hussein Khogali, was informed about the decision to close the paper a day earlier, but he was not told why.
Mandoor, who was speaking at a press conference in the capital Khartoum on Sunday, said that his party had informed the NISS of its objection to the closure of Al-Wan.
In the days preceding Al-Wan’s closure, security authorities also closed Ra’y al-Sha’b newspaper, the mouthpiece of the opposition Popular Congress Party (PCP) led by Hassan al-Turabi, following the confiscation of its copies.
However, Mandoor’s criticism of Al-Wan closure did not extend to Ra’y al-Sha’b, which he said was closed because it “exceeded the redlines”.
Although the NISS gave no reason for closing Ra’y al-Sha’b, it is believed that the paper’s publishing of an interview with one of the leading members of the Darfur rebel group, Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), was behind the decision.
“These latest two newspaper closures show the government of President Omar Hassan al-Bashir has yet to overcome his chronically repressive instincts aimed at silencing the media,” the press freedom watchdog Reporters Without Borders said in a press release dated 17 January.
Sudan’s constitution guarantees press freedom but laws subordinate to the constitution such as the National Security Act are perpetually used to close newspapers and instigate legal proceedings against individual journalists.
In another vein, Mandoor Al-Mahdi launched a surprise attack on the Just Peace Forum, a far-right political party led by president Al-Bashir’s Uncle Al-Tayyib Mustafa.
The NCP official accused the JPF of exacerbating racial and tribal divides in the Sudanese community.
The JPF strongly advocates preservation of Sudan’s Islamic and Arab identity. Its supporters were jubilant when South Sudan seceded from Sudan in July last year, an end the JPF had been openly calling for since the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement between north and South Sudan in 2005.
(ST)