Sudanese security confiscates newspaper over child abuse issue
June 12, 2015 (KHARTOUM) – Sudan’s National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS) has seized copies of Al-Youm Al-Tali newspaper on Friday without giving reasons.
Several journalists at Al-Youm Al-Tali said the move was likely because columnist Mohamed Latif re-published an article written by the veteran journalist Nour al-Din Madani in which he said the police acknowledged exposure of children to sexual abuse.
They added that Latif also asked authorities to compensate the newspapers which has been confiscated or suspended for publishing statements regarding child abuse incidents besides offering an apology to the secretary general of the Sudan Consumer Protection Society (SCPS), Yasir Merghani, and the activist Nasreen Mustafa.
Last month, the NISS seized copies of 10 newspapers and suspended four of them indefinitely without reasons.
But several journalists suggested it was likely a reaction to news published by those newspapers on incidents of sexual harassment and child rape taking place inside school buses.
The security apparatus also arrested Mustafa who brought up the issue of children sexual harassment at a forum at the SCPS and Mirghani who organized the forum covered by the newspapers.
They were both released recently and the four suspended newspapers have been reinstated on Thursday.
After the security apparatus lifted pre-publication censorship, it started punishing them retroactively by seizing copies of newspapers that breach unwritten red lines inflicting financial and moral losses on these media houses.
The mass confiscation has emerged as a new technique of punishment by the NISS which tend to accuse affected newspapers of disseminating news that adversely affect the national security of the country.
Last February, it seized copies of 14 newspapers from printing press without giving reasons.
NISS used to summon journalists and seize copies of newspapers for publishing news and reports on political, security and military issues, however, they recently they tightened the noose on social issues as well.
Sudan’s constitution guarantees freedom of expression but laws subordinate to the constitution such as the National Security Forces Act of 2010 contains articles that can be potentially used to curtail press freedom and instigate legal proceedings against newspapers and individual journalists.
Sudanese journalists work under tight daily censorship controls exercised by the NISS.
Journalists say that NISS uses seizures of print copies of newspapers, not only to censor the media but also to weaken them economically.
(ST)