SUDAN

Country Summary

Since the 1989 coup that brought the Islamist-backed regime of Lt. General Omar Hassan al-Bashir to power, the press has remained under constant threat. The new military regime abruptly closed newspapers that had flourished during the brief period of multi-party government (1986-89) and imprisoned dozens of journalists for their links with the opposition press.

Authorities continue to keep a watchful eye on independent-minded journalists. They invoked the restrictive 1993 Press and Publications Law when they deemed the reporting to be too critical. In January, for example, the government used the law to revoke the license of the privately owned daily Akhar Khabar for what it described as the newspaper's repeated "exaggerations" and violations of public morality. Another private paper, the outspoken independent Al-Rai al-Akher, closed after the government revoked the license of its publisher, Dar al-Ahlah, in July. The newspaper had been hit with a two-week publication suspension in May after publishing an article on a prison riot south of the capital, Khartoum.

In December, the Sudanese parliament passed a revised press law that imposed further constraints on the press. In addition to the existing ban on coverage of the army and national security issues, the new law also prohibits reporting on the national police. Newspapers in violation of the new law risk a two-month closure or even the permanent cancellation of their operating licenses. Some positive features of the law, on the other hand, include provisions that guarantee journalists the right to protect the confidentiality of their sources and require the authorities to notify the Journalists Syndicate in cases of journalists' arrest. Given the Sudanese government's disregard for the rule of law, however, observers voice skepticism about how rigorously authorities will enforce these protective provisions.

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