NISS confiscates three newspapers in Khartoum

The security authorities confiscated all copies of three newspapers in Khartoum as soon as they were pressed this morning.

The National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS) did not provide any reasons for the confiscation of El Tayar, El Jareeda, and El Akhbar El Youm on Thursday.

Ashraf Abdelaziz, an editor of El Jareeda, told Radio Dabanga that the NISS seized their 5,000 copies right from the printing press. “We contacted the media department of the NISS on Thursday morning, to inform us about the reasons for the confiscation. But they did not provide us with any clear reasons.” 

He noted that the story they published three days ago, about dozens of cancer patients in the cancer centre in Wad Medani, the capital of El Gezira state, might have triggered the media-monitoring Press Council to carry out the confiscation.

Abdelaziz said that the move by the security apparatus has “nothing to do with the law”, and stressed that the Press Council is responsible for taking decisions related to newspapers.

El Akhbar was also confiscated on 8 June. Seizing print runs exhausts newspapers financially. El Ayam and El Youm E Tali were confiscated in the same manner on Saturday and Friday respectively.