Sudan in consecutive confiscation of pro-opposition paper
March 18, 2012 (KHARTOUM) – Sudanese security authorities on Sunday seized for the third day in a row the entire print-run of Al-Midan newspaper, the latest assault on freedom of press in the east African country.
Al-Midan is the mouthpiece of the opposition Sudanese Communist Party (SCP) and has been the target of numerous confiscations by the National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS).
The NISS already seized two of Al-Midan’s editions last week, accusing it of ignoring orders to avoid reporting on the case of a girl killed by police, the paper’s editor-in-chief Madiha Abdella told Reuters on Sunday.
“Yesterday evening security authorities seized all copies of the newspaper in the printing house after they had been printed without giving any reason,” she said.
Sudanese authorities routinely confiscate copies of newspapers as a punishment for publishing contents critical of the government. The measure is intended to inflict financial damage on the already hard-pressed papers.
Since the beginning of this year, Sudan suspended three daily newspapers for publishing contents deemed dangerous to national security. Two of them later said they have been allowed to resume production.
In an interview aired by the Qatar-based Al-Jazeera TV this week, Sudan’s president Omer Al-Bashir sought to justify his government’s crackdown on media, saying the papers singled out for suspension had published negative comments about the country’s army.
Sudan’s constitution guarantees press freedom but laws subordinate to it such as the National Security Forces Act of 2010 of the NISS are perpetually used to punish newspapers and prosecute individual journalists.
Ali Shomo, the head of Sudan’s National Council for Press and Publication (NCPP), the official regulator of the print-media sector, bitterly admitted in an interview published by Al-Sudani newspaper on 11 March that his body’s mandate is overpowered by that of the NISS.
Sudan has been ranked among the world’s 10 worst countries with regards to media freedom in the 2011-2012 Press Freedom Index of Reporters Without Borders.
(ST)