Al-Tayyar newspaper to file a lawsuit against Sudanese security

March 12, 2018 (KHARTOUM) – Publisher and Chief-Editor of Al-Tayyar newspaper Osman Mirghani said he intends to file a suit in the Constitutional Court against the National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS) due to continued confiscations of his news daily.

Speaking in a press conference on Monday, Mirghani said the NISS since last week has forced the printing house not to hand over copies of Al-Tayyar until after 6:00 am (local time) which adversely impacts on the daily sales of the newspaper.

He described the NISS move as indirect confiscation of the newspaper, warning to escalate actions against the NISS until stopping its crackdown against Al-Tayyar.

“We would file a constitutional suit against the NISS due to its actions against us and starting from next Saturday we would embark on [a public campaign] to sign the Charter of Freedoms to defend liberties in general and Al-Tayyar’s case in particular,” he said

“Following the signing of the Charter we would announce escalatory moves including setting a date to go on a hunger strike” he added

Mirghani stressed the NISS move aims to inflict financial losses upon Al-Tayyar but he refrained from the revealing the actual figure of losses during the past period in order not to negatively affect the morale of the newspaper’ staff.

However, he said the newspaper has been confiscated more than hundred times, adding the losses incurred due to these confiscations are estimated at billions of Sudanese pounds.

It is noteworthy that the NISS has prevented the TV channels from broadcasting the news conference.

In June 2012, the NISS suspended al-Tayyar indefinitely and allowed it to reopen in March 2014 upon a ruling of the Constitutional Court. However, it suspended the newspaper again on December 15, 2015.

However, Sudan’s Constitutional Court in May 2016 ordered to allow Al-Tayyar to resume publishing.

Following the lift of pre-publication censorship, the NISS started punishing newspapers retroactively by seizing copies of newspapers that breach unwritten red lines inflicting financial and moral losses on these media houses.

In February 2015, it seized copies of 14 newspapers from printing press without giving reasons.

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

In July 2016, Al-Taghyeer newspaper decided to suspend publishing and laid off its staff following large financial loss incurred due to repeated confiscations.

(ST)