Sudan journalists protest seizure of newspaper

Sudanese journalists organised a sit-in today in front of the National Council for Press and Publications (NCPP) to protest the repeated confiscation of the Al-Jareeda newspaper by the Sudanese security and intelligence agencies.

The journalists delivered a memorandum to NCPP head Fadlallah Muhammad, complaining against the increasing violation of press freedoms in the country.

Muhammad stressed to the protesters that the NCPP stood with the newspapers and rejected their seizure by the government.

The memorandum said: “The print-runs of the Al-Jareeda newspaper have been confiscated by the National Intelligence and security services 11 times in one month…in a fierce attack on freedom of expression which is the first of its kind in the history of the Sudanese press.”

The memo pointed out that “the repeated targeting through confiscation and stopping of printing have impacted the newspaper and its readers as well as their right to access information.”

A representative of the newspaper, Majid Al-Qoni, told Turkey’s state-run Anadolu news agency that the head of the NCPP had promised to review the memorandum and demand the authorities to stop its attacks on the press.

Recently, the security apparatus has confiscated the print-runs of six newspapers without explanation. However, journalists believe the attacks are due to their coverage of civil disobedience that swept the country between November and December in response to the government’s austerity plan.