CPJ finds obstruction during Sudanese referendum
New York, January 27, 2010–Sudanese authorities harassed, obstructed, and censored local and international news media covering this month’s referendum concerning independence for South Sudan, a CPJ analysis has found. CPJ condemns the harassment of the press in Sudan and calls for an end to the repressive tactics.
Sudan bans BBC Arabic, tightens grip on the press
New York, August 9, 2010—The Sudanese government has announced it is suspending the BBC’s license to broadcast in Arabic on local FM frequencies in four northern cities, including the capital, Khartoum. Security personnel also informed editors in recent days that journalists who had not completed an extensive government questionnaire would be detained, journalists told CPJ.
CPJ condemns censorship of Sudanese paper
New York, July 12, 2010—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns a decision by the Security and National Intelligence Service to bar publication of the daily Al-Intibaha. Authorities suspended the newspaper last week because of the newspaper’s supposed role “in strengthening separatist tendencies in the south and the north,” a security official told local reporters.
Attacks on the Press 2009: Sudan
Top Developments• Government continues to impose vast censorship.• New press law falls short of international standards. Key Statistic 9: Men executed in editor’s murder. Observers call it a miscarriage of justice. Sudanese journalists worked amid political uncertainty and severe restrictions. Pervasive official censorship restricted journalists from closely reporting on the tumultuous events of 2009: The International Criminal…
Attacks on the Press in 2008: Sudan
Sudan’s Comprehensive Peace Agreement, which formally ended a decades-long civil war between north and south, officially protects press freedom. However, Sudanese officials ignored these guarantees in practice. In February, the government reinstated formal censorship of the print news media, instructing local editors to submit each issue for pre-approval. Throughout the year, authorities confiscated newspapers and…
Attacks on the Press 2007: Sudan
SUDAN Despite free speech protections built into Sudan’s 2005 interim constitution, authorities operated as if a state of emergency were still in force. Newspaper suspensions, criminal charges, and detentions were a routine part of working as a journalist in Sudan. When trying to cover one of the world’s biggest stories—the genocide in Darfur—reporters faced high…
In Sudan, two editors accused of sedition
New York, February 14, 2007—The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply concerned by the recent detention of two Sudanese editors and the temporary closure of their newspaper after they interviewed religious militants last week. At around midnight on February 7, a Sudanese security officer visited the home of Adil Sid Ahmed, deputy editor-in-chief of the…
SUDAN
APRIL 26, 2005 Posted: May 17, 2005 Brad Clift, freelance IMPRISONED Sudanese security forces detained Clift while he was taking photographs at an internally displaced persons camp outside Nyala, capital of Darfur’s southern state. Clift works for The Hartford Courant but was in Sudan as a freelancer traveling with the relief group, Hartford Catholic Worker,…
Attacks on the Press 2003: Sudan
With more than a dozen private dailies and one government daily, Sudan’s print press is surprisingly diverse. Though some private papers are pro-government, many report aggressively on government policies. The state controls all television and radio stations. Rebel leaders and the Sudanese government moved closer in 2003 to an agreement to end their bloody 20-year…
Sudanese journalist detained without charge for 10 days Newspaper suspended
New York, May 15, 2003—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is alarmed by recent measures taken against the press in Sudan, including the arrest of one journalist and the closure of a newspaper. Noureddin Madani, editor of the daily Al-Sahafa, told CPJ that Yousef al-Bashir Moussa, the newspaper’s correspondent in the city of Nyala, (about…