Censorship hits four Sudanese dailies

Reporters Without Borders | September 14, 2006

A group calling itself al-Qaida in Africa has reportedly claimed responsibility for the death of a Sudanese editor in Khartoum. Mohamed Taha was found beheaded last Wednesday, according to the Voice of America (VOA) September 13, 2006 report

"Last year we highlighted a gradual improvement in press freedom in Sudan but arrests and attacks on journalists have been mounting in recent weeks," the organisation said. "Despite its solemn promises, the Sudanese government is now using the 6 September murder of Mohamed Taha, the editor of the privately-owned daily Al-Wifaq, as a pretext for reinstating censorship for articles of a political nature. The international community, which is very concerned about the situation in Sudan, should also pay attention to the situation of press freedom there."

Local journalists said the censored articles not only dealt with Taha's murder but also developments liable to embarrass the Sudanese authorities, such as the use of force to disperse protests in Khartoum on 30 August and 6 September and the ongoing wrangle between President Bashir and the UN about resolution 1706 on Darfur. On 11 September, security agents ordered Al-Sahafa to remove two articles from its next issue, before it was printed. They were about a meeting of journalists to discuss the Taha case. The newspaper was also ordered to remove an editorial by Hayder Al Mukashfi. The same day, security agents took articles about the recent rioting from Al-Sudani, the newspaper's deputy editor, Noureddine Medani, told Agence France-Presse. Without going into details, Al-Ayam's editors also reported that portions of that day's issue were censored. Two days before that, on 9 September, the police seized all the copies of Al-Sudani as they came off the press, claiming this was necessary of the safety of journalists after the Taha murder. A senior security official said that, because "the deceased is a journalist," any "emotional" reporting about the case could "hurt the investigation." Al-Sudani columnist Osman Merghani told Reuters the authorities "did not specify which articles they did not like, they just said they were all inappropriate." The Sudan Organisation Against Torture reported that a team from the National Security Service's press and media department burst into the opposition newspaper Rai-Al-Shaab on the evening of 6 September and ordered the removal of all reports about the demonstrations that had taken place that day in Khartoum. The newspaper ended up being printed without a front page headline and without any text on page 3. Also, Haj Warag did not write his daily column in protest.