Sudanese security prevents media symposium in Khartoum
April 30, 2016 (KHARTOUM) – Sudan’s National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS) Saturday prevented the Journalists Network (SJN) from holding a symposium to discuss government plans aimed at integrating daily newspapers into a limited number of press institutions.
He added that Tiba Press has the right to host such an event inside its premises without permission from the concerned authorities according to the law.
The move comes two days after a media watchdog said the NISS directed the newspapers to not report about student demonstrations to protest the recent killing of two students.
The symposium titled “Integrating Newspapers: A leap into the Unknown” was supposed to bring a panel of speakers from various newspapers including publishers, chief editors and journalists to discuss the impact of the government plans on their newspapers.
It is noteworthy that senior government officials have repeatedly called on publishers to consider integrating their newspapers in order to receive government support particularly as they suffer from high cost of printing and low circulation.
The government seeks to convince publishers to adopt its plans by mutual consent since there is no law in place that compels them to accept the move, however, disagreements exist among the latter on the proposal.
Also, journalists fear that dozens of their colleagues would be laid off as a result of the integration of the newspapers.
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.
(ST)