Sudanese security confiscates Monday issue of Al-Tayyar newspaper

December 14, 2015 (KHARTOUM) – The Sudanese security has confiscated Monday’s issue of the daily newspaper Al-Tayyar (Current), apparently for its highly critical editorials of the country’s finance minister’s hint about the lifting of subsidies on certain commodities.

The paper’s journalists said security personnel stormed the paper’s press and collected all copies before they were distributed .

They told Sudan Tribune they could give no explanation to the security’s action other than the harsh criticism leveled by the paper’s publisher and editor Osman Mirghani at the finance minister’s

request from the parliament to approve the lifting of subsidies on some commodities and services.

Last Monday Finance Minister Badr-Eddeen Mahmoud asked the country’s lawmakers to approve the lifting of subsidies on petroleum products, bread and electricity in the 2016 budget .

Mirghani had in his daily editorial, entitled: Hadeeth al-Madeena(City Talk), urged the Finance Minister to resign.

In another article Mirghani likened the lifting of subsidies to what used to happen in the past when pupils were asked to fold up their garments for the teacher to see whether their underwear was clean or not.

“But today’’, argued Mirghani, ‘’the public has no underwear to show..They have sold out their inner clothes to be able to live.’’

The minister’s call for these austerity measures had triggered wide public dismay .

Opposition forces were highly critical of it. Even some leading figures in the ruling National Congress Party had condemned the move as very harmful to the poor sectors of the society.

The paper’s journalists said this confiscation is the 8th during this year.

ST