Security shuts down Alwan newspaper in Khartoum

There are reports that security services indefinitely shut down the Alwan daily newspaper yesterday in Khartoum. Hussein Khojali, the newspaper’s editor said security forces closed down the newspaper, seizing its assets in the biggest crackdown of freedom of expression and freedom of the press in Sudan. The security forces also shut down the Rai Al Shab newspaper affiliated with the Popular Congress Party earlier this month. They are also reported to have confiscated many independent newspapers and imprisoned their editors over the past few months, for writinf about an alleged rape case in July. Khartoum has closed down six newspapers, including the Bells of Freedom on the day before the official secession of south Sudan in July. The Sudanese Journalist Network condemned the closing of the Alwan newspaper stating the move as against the constitution and international conventions of which Sudan is signed up to.