Harsh censorship shuts down papers in Sudan
Censors in Sudan have gone into overdrive since the conflict with South Sudan reignited earlier this year over oil and border issues
By an IMS consultant
The day for many newspaper editors begins with a call or SMS from the Sudanese National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS) with the latest list of banned subjects. The economic crisis and the demonstrations it provoked, fighting in South Kordofan and Blue Nile, accusations that the north is ‘stealing’ oil are all off limits. Security men also appear in person before the papers go to press, reading all the sections, even sports.
Publications that defy the censors have been shut down or copies seized after printing, creating economic hardship for an industry already in crisis over dwindling readership and rising costs. The editor of one newspaper faced weeks of harassment before the paper was closed earlier this year.
“I was phoned before every edition of the paper and given a list of what not to write about – the situation in the border areas, the government, the president, economic issues. I said to them, ‘what do we write about?’ They said to me ‘if you don’t obey we will punish the newspaper and punish you’,” said the editor whose paper was subsequently closed.
“We are not willing to disappear, but the future of journalism in Sudan is gloomy. I am sad to say that.”
“Freedom – as long as you remember the red lines”
Individual journalists are also being targeted. One reporter was told by security earlier this year to stop writing for a Khartoum-based paper after criticising President Omar Al Bashir. “Journalists here have no freedom,” he said.
Experts interviewed by IMS point out that levels of censorship are not constant, fluctuating depending on events at home and in the wider world. The separation of South Sudan and the Arab Spring revolutions in nearby countries have sparked the latest crackdown, they say.
Government officials, meanwhile, insist that press freedom exists in Sudan – as long as journalists remember the “red lines”.
However, coverage of the recent anti-austerity demonstrations in Khartoum and around Sudan was non-existent in the traditional media. Journalists said they were afraid of being arrested and their equipment confiscated.
It was a different story online. Young Sudanese used their phones to tweet, film and photograph from inside the mosques and on the streets as security officials fumed. The protests died out but the bloggers, inspired by the Arab Spring, aren’t going away. Says one young Sudanese blogger, “I do worry about my own security, but sometimes I feel there is a price you have to pay. The government is so brutal I feel like I am out of air.”
IMS visited Khartoum in September to conduct research for a possible project on conflict-sensitive reporting.
