(RSF/IFEX) – RSF has condemned the harassment by the authorities, particularly by the security forces, of journalists who are taking a stand for press freedom. The organisation also protested the arrest of six journalists from the daily “Al-Azmina” over a damning report on Sudan’s financial and economical situation. “The journalists have tried to resist official […]
(RSF/IFEX) – RSF has condemned the harassment by the authorities, particularly by the security forces, of journalists who are taking a stand for press freedom. The organisation also protested the arrest of six journalists from the daily “Al-Azmina” over a damning report on Sudan’s financial and economical situation.
“The journalists have tried to resist official pressure and stand up for freedom of information by creating a committee to defend press freedom and by submitting objections to a new press law that was submitted to Parliament by the president of Sudan for ratification,” RSF said.
“The security forces’ reaction is to use absurd measures to try to stifle this resistance movement. At the same time, after preventing the press from reporting on the events in Darfur, the government is now attacking those who dare to publish a report on the country’s disastrous economy,” the organisation added.
On 15 and 16 May 2004, national security forces arrested Mahgub Mohamed Salih, editor-in-chief of the daily “Al-Ayam”, Zohair Al-Sarrag, a columnist with the daily “Al-Sahafa”, Mahgub Orwa, editor-in-chief of the suspended daily “Al-Sudani”, Mohamed Latif Ali, a columnist with “Al-Ray Alaam”, and a journalist with the daily “Akbar Al-Youm”, for several hours. Salih is also chairperson of a press freedom defence committee that was set up on 4 May. The other arrested journalists are also members of the committee.
The arrests were designed to prevent the journalists from submitting a statement opposing the new press law to Parliament and President Omar el-Beshir. The statement was signed by 210 journalists. While the arrested journalists were in detention, six other members of the committee managed to submit their written objections to Parliament and the communications minister. Before releasing the five detained journalists, the security forces barred them from using the name of the committee and banned the newly-launched organisation. Newspaper editors were also prevented from publishing reports in the name of the committee.
In a separate incident, on 23 May, the general manager of the daily “Al-Azmina”, Jamal Anqara, managing editor Omar Ismaïl and four other journalists with the paper – Osman Hamid, Haider Abdelhafeez, Kamal Awad and Asim Mohieldin – were summoned by the security forces and arrested after the paper carried an article about the collapse of the Sudanese economy. The “Al-Azmina” journalists were interrogated and detained for over 30 hours before being released on bail late on 24 May. They were ordered to report to the prosecutor responsible for crimes against the state on 27 May, for further investigations.
