Sudanese security seizes Al-Taghyeer newspaper for the second day

April 13, 2016 (KHARTOUM) – Sudan’s National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS) Wednesday seized print runs of Al-Taghyeer daily newspaper for the second time in a row from the printing house without giving reasons.

Chief Editor of Al-Taghyeer Sumaia Sayed told Sudan Tribune that NISS didn’t inform her of the reasons of the confiscation for two days, pointing the newspaper has incurred heavy financial losses due to the seizure of the print runs.

Journalists working for the newspaper had earlier said the confiscation might have been motivated by the publishing of an article written by the prominent rights activist Amin Mekki Madani about the International Criminal Court (ICC).

NISS doesn’t tolerate publishing of materials related to the ICC which has two outstanding arrest warrants against President Omer al-Bashir since 2009 over alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity during the Darfur conflict.

Sayed denied that the NISS’s information department had summoned her last Sunday to question her about the ICC article.

The NISS routinely confiscates newspapers either to prevent circulation of certain stories or to punish them retroactively on previous issues.

It accuses the newspapers of crossing the red lines through publishing reports which adversely impact the national security.

In February 2015, NISS seized entire print runs of 14 newspapers in one day without stating the reasons for its decision.

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.
They say that NISS uses seizures of print copies of newspapers, not only to censor the media but also to weaken them economically.

(ST)