Sudanese security seizes Al-Gareeda newspaper for the second day
May 10, 2016 (KHARTOUM) – Sudan’s National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS) has seized copies of Al-Gareeda newspaper on Tuesday morning for the second time in a row from the printing house without stating reasons.
On Monday, Chief Editor of Al-Gareeda Ashraf Abdel-Aziz said the NISS confiscated 12,000 copies his newspaper without giving reasons.
Last week, the non-governmental Journalists for Human Rights (JHR) network said the NISS instructed newspapers on 28 April to not publish news of the recent university demonstrations and the detention and dismissal of the students, saying however few newspapers including Al-Gareeda didn’t comply with the orders.
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.
Sudanese journalists say that NISS uses seizures of print copies of newspapers, not only to censor the media but also to weaken them economically.
Meanwhile, JHR said the Informatics Crimes Bureau has interrogated the journalist at Al-Gareeda Sara Taj al-Sir for the second time for publishing a report on the Al-Rakoba website.
According to JHR, the investigation with Taj al-Sir continued from 11:00 am to 1:45 pm (local time) on Monday for publishing a report on the Sudanese parliament.
Al-Rakoba is a news website that carries stories and op-eds that are critical of the Sudanese government.
(ST)