Statement by Sudanese Journalists Network on the Campaign of Arrests

PRESS RELEASE: The Sudanese Journalists Network has been following with great concern the decline of public freedoms and the country’s fierce campaign launched by the security authorities against press freedoms, which began last May and continued most recently last Wednesday night with the arrest of fellow news columnist Gaafar Al Sabki.The Journalists Network decided to launch an initiative in solidarity with Gaafar Al Sabki and other detained journalists, by hunger-striking for one day and organizing a protest on Monday, November 8, 2010 at Al Sahafa newspaper. In the hours before the start of the solidarity action, […] , it was decided to defer implementation of the solidarity action until a time that will be announced later.

The Sudanese Journalists Network reaffirms its firm position towards the issues of press and public freedoms, and expresses its deep regret about the remarks by senior officials about the other detainees, and believes that such statements injure the integrity of the judicial process.

The Sudanese journalists Network renews its demand to release our colleague Gaafar Al Sabki immediately or reveal his whereabouts, specify the charge against him, allow his family and his lawyer to visit him, and bring him to trial. The Network declares that it has organized a number of steps, which will be publicized in a timely manner, and calls on the media to rally around the issues of the profession, particularly at this juncture of history being experienced by our country in general and journalism in particular.

Together until the release of all detained journalists
Free Press … Or No Press
Sudanese Journalists Network
Khartoum – Sudan
November 8, 2010

[Approximate translation from the original Arabic].