(RSF/IFEX) – In a letter to Minister of Justice Ali Yassin, RSF protested the three-day suspension of the daily “Khartoum Monitor”. “Once again, the Sudanese authorities do not tolerate criticism, especially when it concerns their management of the conflict with the south of the country,” said Robert Ménard, the organisation’s secretary-general. RSF noted that since […]
(RSF/IFEX) – In a letter to Minister of Justice Ali Yassin, RSF protested the three-day suspension of the daily “Khartoum Monitor”. “Once again, the Sudanese authorities do not tolerate criticism, especially when it concerns their management of the conflict with the south of the country,” said Robert Ménard, the organisation’s secretary-general. RSF noted that since the beginning of the year, the newspaper and its contributors have been subjected to constant pressure.
According to information collected by RSF, on 11 September 2001, the daily “Khartoum Monitor” was banned for three days, by order of the National Press Council (which reports directly to the head of state and can suspend or ban newspapers, or fine publishers). The suspension order was given because of the publication of articles in August and September which were judged to be “harmful” to relations between the country’s north and south, which have been engaged in a civil war since 1983. The “Khartoum Monitor” has notably published statements from a personality in the country’s south accusing northerners of having “plundered the south.”
The “Khartoum Monitor” is the only English-language daily in Sudan. It is famous for its criticism of government policies, especially concerning the country’s southern region. Several Khartoum Monitor journalists were arrested in the past year. On 24 February, Alfred Taban and Albino Okeny, publisher and editor-in-chief of the independent daily, respectively, were detained by police for several hours (see IFEX alert of 27 February 2001). On 12 April, Taban, who is also a British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) and Reuters correspondent in the country, was arrested and held at army headquarters under emergency laws. The law empowers the Security Police to detain “suspects” for up to ninety days without charge. The journalist was arrested while attending a press conference by church leaders in downtown Khartoum following the cancellation of an Easter ceremony by police on 11 April (see IFEX alerts of 16 and 12 April 2001). In June, Taban was prevented from leaving the country while attempting to go to Tanzania to attend at an international meeting between journalists and non-governemental organisations. No reason was given to justify the action.
