Radio and TV workers strike across Sudan

The Committee for the Demands of Radio and Television Workers in the Various States of Sudan continued to schedule a strike yesterday, demanding that their organisations be brought under the control of National Authority for Radio and Television instead of being subject to state governments. They also presented a list of demands including a new salary structure, harmonising working conditions at all agencies, dealing with job promotions, and improving the work environment for media workers.

The employees of the Radio and Television Corporation of South Darfur carried out the directives to stop working according to the schedule set by the five-year committee that represents workers in the different states of the country. The workers returned to work on Sunday, and the stoppage will continue on Monday.

The Secretary-General of the National Umma Party, representative of the Centre for Freedom and Change in South Darfur, Hafiz Omar, visited the headquarters of the commission on Saturday, met with the workers’ committee, listened to their demands, and received a copy of the memos with which the committee addressed the concerned authorities.

Omar promised to support the radio and television workers and deliver their message to the centre, while the members of the committee praised the gesture of the revolutionary bodies.

The decision to stop broadcasting organisation sparked widespread controversy on social media, where a large number of newspaper correspondents, news agencies, radio stations and government channels declared their solidarity with the employees of the broadcasting and television organisations, and citizens of South Darfur expressed their annoyance at the interruption of the voice of Radio Nyala, especially during the month of Ramadan, when they used to get acquainted with Iftar time on the radio, which caused confusion in the past two days.

Ramadan

The South Darfur Committee had announced, on the first day of the month of Ramadan, that all workers had stopped working in response to the five-year committee’s decision, which resulted in the cancellation of a Ramadan radio interview with the state’s governor, Hamid al-Tijani Hanoun.

It is noteworthy that the government agencies did not comment on the suspension of the state bodies of radio and television until Sunday morning, and the members of the five-year committee expect an escalation and procedures that will affect the departments of the bodies who did not abide by the implementation of the suspension of work.

Kordofan

The workers of the Radio and Television Corporation in West Kordofan declared their commitment to the scheduled strike announced by the workers’ demand committee to demand a resolution of the bodies’ affiliation. Ismail Bakhit Hamed, head of the demand committee of workers in the West Kordofan Radio and Television Corporation, told Radio Dabanga that some bodies did not join the strike and did not stop broadcasting. However, the number of those who committed themselves to the strike is constantly increasing, stressing that the strike is one of the legitimate means to solve workers’ issues, and it is expected that it will come to fruition soon.

Not implemented

Workers at the Radio and Television Corporation in North Darfur and the Blue Nile region revealed that the strike decided by the Five-Year Committee had not been implemented to demand the entitlements of the corporations’ workers.

Workers in North Darfur indicated that the administration did not respond to the strike, and representatives of the authority in the Supreme Committee of all bodies apologised for not being assigned to follow up the dues of the authority because of the non-implementation of the strike.

Majda Abdallah, programme manager at Blue Nile Radio, said that the strike was not implemented due to the lack of clarity of the five-year committee with state radio stations. She indicated that the committee was dissolved days before the announcement of the strike, and then reconstituted without the knowledge of the bodies, and that the decision to strike was announced through the WhatsApp group, and the bodies were not notified officially.