‘Access to news is a basic human right, and a matter of survival in Sudan’
Cartoon by Omar Defallah / RD
By Kamal El Sadig, Editor-in-Chief, Dabanga – Radio TV Online
The stated vision of Dabanga – Radio TV Online has always been for a democratic Sudan where there is freedom, peace, and justice, and where human rights are enshrined – particularly the right to free speech and access to information. As the world marks Human Rights Day 2024, we are, tragically, still reporting daily on widespread human rights violations by all warring parties across Sudan, in the midst of what has become the most dire humanitarian catastrophe in the world, and maybe in modern history.
The overthrow of the Al Bashir regime in April 2019, which was characterised by the extreme suppression, censorship, and information control that forced Dabanga – Radio TV Online into exile, represented a ray of light for all Sudanese media. For Dabanga – Radio TV Online, it raised our hope that we could emerge from the darkness of exile to fulfil our mission to be a public service media house for all Sudanese that enables people in all states and regions to participate in the exchange of knowledge, news, and information.
Alas, the subsequent military coup of October 25, 2021 marked the return of information control and censorship. This has deepened further since the outbreak of the current civil war between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces on April 15, 2023, in which all parties to the conflict have weaponised information, spread disinformation, muddied the waters with conflicting propaganda, and curtailed public access to news via internet and telecommunications blackouts.
Dabanga – Radio TV Online shortwave broadcasts are often a lifeline for listeners in remote parts of Sudan, for refugees in neighbouring countries, and for people who have been displaced from urban areas, where internet and mobile phone connections have become increasingly unreliable.
Threats, attacks, and abuses against journalists have also escalated, making it extremely challenging for correspondents of Dabanga – Radio TV Online, and most other media, to obtain and verify information that can sometimes mean the difference between life and death to our listeners in the war zones.
Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states: “Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.”
Free and unrestricted media are an essential vector for this right to freedom of opinion and expression, yet year-on-year, Sudan continues to languish at the bottom of the annual Reporters Without Borders Press Freedom Index, at 149th of 180 countries surveyed in 2024.
As the world marks Human Rights Day, Dabanga – Radio TV Online joins our colleagues in the Sudanese and world media in the hope for an end to the current hostilities in Sudan, and the incalculable human suffering that are left in their wake. Robust, free, and independent media will then surely form a vital link for the people of Sudan, including the millions who are internally displaced, or have become refugees, in the challenging process of rebuilding their lives.
Access to news is a basic human right, and a matter of survival in Sudan.
#HumanRightsDay
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Kamal El Sadig,
Editor-in-Chief,
Dabanga – Radio TV Online
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