NISS gags Sudanese press on economic crisis

The Sudanese National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS) on Tuesday evening reportedly prohibited all Sudanese newspapers to carry any news on the economic reforms or the rising prices. The NISS also prohibited the newspapers to tackle the lifting of subsidies on fuel and commodities, be it positive or negative. Journalists have condemned the decision of the NISS and stated that it clearly reflects the size of the disagreement the ruling National Congress Party has encountered on its plans to remove the subsidies. Journalist Faisal Mohamed Salih, who recently won the 2013 Peter Mackler Award for Courageous and Ethical Journalism, told Radio Dabanga on Wednesday that the NISS always imposes censorship in case a certain topic is creating a public stir. Salih stressed the fact that press censorship is not new but it is an old policy of the regime to which it has returned again. He explained that broadly there are two kinds of NISS censorship: direct censorship, by security officers visiting the newspaper offices and checking the newspaper’s contents every evening, or through phone calls to the editors-in-chief, and an indirect one, through the confiscation of the printed papers before distribution in the early morning. Salih confirmed that the imposition of the latest censorship confirms that the lifting of subsidies has encountered huge disagreement among Sudanese citizens, civil society organisations, political parties, and even within the ruling National Congress Party and its confreres from other parties. “This is exactly the reason why the security imposed censorship on the media on this subject. Because of the broad dissent, the government took refuge in prohibiting dealing with the subject by the press.” Cairo Professor Hamid El Tijani, an economy expert at the American University in Cairo, has described the government’s announced intention to lift subsidies on fuel as ‘a big lie’. He explained in an interview with Radio Dabanga that “What the government is currently doing is actually an imposition of new taxes on basic consumer commodities, rather than the lifting of subsidies – which are in fact not in place to lift.”He added that Sudan is witnessing an economic collapse, with an increase in expenses and a deficit in the revenues. This negative development has prompted the ruling National Congress Party to resort to ‘borrowing from the people’, in the name of lifting subsidies. He stressed that the government, by ‘lifting subsidies’, just intends to impose new taxes on citizens.El Tijani explained that the Sudanese government spends about $6 billion and $300 million on the security sector with an average of $10 million per day and approximately $4 million a day for the presidency and the sovereign sectors. He noted that the government has options other than the ongoing procedures, such as a cut in spending on the security and sovereign sectors.”This naturally requires the political will to stop the current wars in Darfur, South Kordofan and the Blue Nile state. It would be an essential step in the restoration of confidence in the Sudanese economy.”El Tijani stressed though, that any economical solution in the current situation through which Sudan is going may be of no avail. He rather believes that the solution lies in the radical change of the regime.  File photo: Faisal Muhammed Salih Related: World Press Freedom Day: ‘Journalists facing terrible abuses’ in Sudan (3 May 2013) Journalists protest against increased censorship in Sudan (3 July 2012) Security rearrests Faisal Muhammed Salih, confiscates two newspapers (16 May 2012) Security bans 14th journalist, confiscates Al Midan newspaper (7 May 2012)