Sudan’s NISS bans ‘Al Youm Al Tali’ daily newspaper, gags reporters

The publication of Al Youm Al Tali daily newspaper has been “suspended indefinitely”, and two Sudanese reporters have been “forbidden from writing” by order of Sudan’s National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS). Editor Muzammil Abu Al Qasim told radio Dabanga that on Wednesday, agents of the NISS ordered him to “halt publication indefinitely”. The also reportedly confiscated the print-run of the next edition of Al Youm Al Tali. Strongly condemning the action, Al Qasim said that the NISS did not provide any reasons for the ban. In terms of the order, journalists Salah Aouda Shere of Akhir Lahza and Mohamed Abdel Majid of Al Ahram El Youm have also been “forbidden from writing”. The Sudanese journalistic fraternity has reacted with a chorus of condemnation, describing the NISS intervention and the confiscation of the Al Youm Al Tali edition “a violation of freedom of expression as enshrined in the Constitution of Sudan”. The journalists of Sudan also reminded the regime that it “violates ratified international conventions” and appealed to local organisations as well as the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) and the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) “to show international solidarity, to protect the freedom of expression, and to stop arbitrary procedures against newspapers and journalists”. The latest action comes in the wake of allegations by Bloomberg News journalist, Michael Gunn, who told Reuters that security agents detained him for covering a rally on 29 June where thousands demanded that President Omar Hassan El Bashir resigns. Gunn claims that NISS agents “detained and beat him” for covering a rally on 29 June where “thousands demanded that President Omar Al Bashir resign”. He says that the agents later “left him on a street”, and that he left Sudan shortly afterwards “in fear of his life”. In a statement, the New York-based CPJ said, “Gunn said he was beaten several times, his bag and pockets were searched, and his shirt was pulled over his head before he was thrown into the back of a pickup truck with a number of Sudanese citizens”. The statement added that Gunn was “taken blindly and interrogated for three hours about what he is doing in Sudan”. “Sudanese authorities assaulted and threatened an international journalist with apparent impunity and with the effect of preventing the reporter from carrying out his duties,” the CPJ statement concluded. Composite image by Radio Dabanga Related: Newspapers seized by Security Services in Sudan (5 July 2013)World Press Freedom Day: ‘Journalists facing terrible abuses’ in Sudan (3 May 2013)Al Jazeera editor-in-chief summoned by Sudan security services (4 April 2013)