Cape Town – The Sudanese press continues to be severely hobbled by frequent seizures of the entire print run and suspensions of publications, the African Union Commission said in a statement released on Monday.
The statement said the National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS) had “shown unflinching determination to carry out mass confiscations against newspapers deemed to cross what it describes as ‘red lines’”.
During the last couple of months, the NISS was said to have confiscated copies of various newspapers 32 times. In February 2015, the state agency seized print runs of 14 newspapers from the printing press on one day.
Ashraf Abdel-Aziz, chief editor of Al-Jareeda, a daily, said the NISS had seized the newspaper 27 times during the last year. He added that the National Council for Press and Publications also suspended the news daily four times. He said the confiscations had cost the newspaper tens of thousands of dollars.
He has previously been quoted as saying the newspaper had received an “alarming, explicit order” from the NISS to change its editorial line.
Osman Merghani, publisher and chief editor of the Al-Tayyar daily, believes his newspaper is the worst hit by the repeated confiscations and suspensions, having been suspended during the entire first half of last year.
A third editor, al-Nour Ahmed al-Nour of Al-Saiha daily, said his newspaper was seized six times during 2016.
The frequency of confiscations varies with the political climate in the country. The statement said newspapers were seized nine times during the first quarter of 2016 while there were 32 confiscations between late November and December after the NISS imposed restrictions on covering recent civil disobedience actions.
NISS’s control of newspapers extends to the government-funded advertising and printing market.
The African Union Commission statement added that it was “noteworthy” that the NISS owned the International Printing Press (IPP), which prints the majority of the news dailies in the countries.
Director of Al-Ashiqa Printing Press, Mohamed Wida’a, was quoted as saying that IPP had a monopoly, printing 80 percent of newspapers in Sudan.
Not happy to tackle just the product, the NISS is reported to be prosecuting journalists. According to the Sudanese Journalists Network, 11 cases were pursued against journalists and editors in 2016.
African News Agency