The parameters for the independent media in Sudan have been increasingly narrowed since the beginning of the year with the reintroduction of pre-print censorship and rampant harassment. Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has referred to the clampdown on the media as a “campaign waged by the government” and the Sudan Organisation Against Torture has stressed its unlawfulness.
According to RSF, censorship was officially repealed in Sudan in July 2005 following a peace accord that was signed with the rebels of the southern Sudan People’s Liberation Movement. The Interim National Constitution also guarantees freedom of the press to the same level as a democratic society. There are still loopholes in the legislative framework-defamation and publication of “false information” are still criminal offences.
The reestablishment of direct pre-print censorship on 6 February 2008 has further amplified the government’s grasp on what the public is allowed to read and what journalists can cover. Since its reimplementation, as according to journalists quoted by Reuters, National Security Service (NSS) officials have been checking the content of independent newspapers every evening to remove anything deemed anti-government, dissident, or subversive before printing the morning after.
Some journalists have also been blacklisted with warning letters sent to a number of newspapers dissuading them to print their “dangerous scoops” on the basis that they had not complied with the country’s legal requirements to work as journalists.
As a result, independent papers around the country have been forced to alter their publications. On 10 February, al-Sahafa was forced to pull a story by Haider al-Mikashfy that referenced a speech by the head of the NSS, Salah Gosh, where he accused journalists of foul play.
Developments in Darfur and neighbouring Chad have also been denied exposure through newspapers. On 14 February privately-owned weekly Rai al-Shaab was banned from publishing the day’s issue due to allegations it made that the Sudanese government had backed Chadian rebels. On 3 March the newspaper Al-Midan was forced to remove two headlines for the next issue that discussed acquitted charges made against its editor for “disturbing peace” and the armed forces’ decision to open an office in Israel. Two days later the revised issue was distributed. Such stories are becoming common for the independent media in the country-they are working in a closely monitored environment that leaves little room for both free expression and mere documentation.
The Sudan Organisation Against Torture in a recent report indicated that these developments are a sharp turn from proactive steps seen at the end of 2006 and 2007. First, systematic pre-print censorship had been inactive since late 2006. Second, civil society groups began to devise a new set of media laws in 2007. Lastly, Al-Midan, which represents the opposition Umma Party, was legally granted the right to resume publication for the first time since the 1989 coup.