Sudan’s El Midan daily gagged by security again

On Tuesday, security agents confiscated the print-run of El Midan daily newspaper for the ninth time this month. Again no reasons were given.

Two weeks ago, editor-in-chief Madeeha Abdallah was summoned by the state security prosecution because of an interview with Abdelaziz El Hilu, Military Chief of Staff of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N), published on 28 December.

Abdallah was charged with ‘undermining the constitutional order’, an offence that carries the death penalty or life imprisonment. She was released on bail the same day.

El Midan, issued by the Sudanese Communist Party, was allowed to reappear in print in April 2014, after it was suspended for more than 18 months by the National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS). The newspaper was able to continue electronically.

“The purpose of confiscating the print-runs is to exhaust the newspapers financially,” the editor-in-chief of El Jareeda newspaper commented to Dabanga in July last year. “It is in fact a direct and methodical liquidation, meant to kill the independent press.”