Sudan’s El Jareeda seized ten times in a month

On Tuesday, agents of the National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS) seized the print run of Sudan’s El Jareeda newspaper for the tenth time in a month. Akher Lahza was also seized.

In an interview with Radio Dabanga on Tuesday, El Jareeda editor Ashraf Abdelaziz, the editor of El Jareeda said that this raises the economic pressure on the newspaper that has suffered continuous confiscations and pressures to force it to retreat from its editorial line.

He stressed that the newspaper refuses to back down, whatever the costs, are as it is an independent newspaper that operates according to the law, and its editorial line mainly depends on citizen journalism.

He said the confiscations certainly have a clear impact on the economics of the newspaper. He pointed out that there is a teacher-reader initiative through which the newspaper will continue to be persistent in its campaign.

On Tuesday the Press and Publications Council suspended El Tayyar newspaper for three days. Editor Osman Mirghani told Radio Dabanga that a complaint was filed by the judiciary against writer Suhair Abdelrahim who appealed through her column in the newspaper to the Chief Justice to look into the grievances of a reader.

He said the Press Council looked into the complaint in the presence of the El Tayyar editor in chief and then decided to suspend the newspaper for three days.

Mirghani expressed his respect and appreciation for the judiciary for resorting to complaints to the Press Council and distancing itself from being both judge and plaintiff.

Newspaper seizures are common in Sudan, which consistently ranks near the bottom of world press freedom indexes; however there has been a severe clampdown over the last two months since the start of the civil disobedience campaign.