About IFEX:

News by region:

IFEX Campaigns and Advocacy:

IFEX Email Products:

Opportunities and assistance:

Alert

Newspaper's proofs seized by intelligence office

(ANHRI/IFEX) - The Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI) condemns outright the removal of seven proofs from "Ajras Al Hurriya" newspaper by an intelligence officer responsible for proof censorship. The incident took place on 23 October 2008. This action so outraged the newspaper that it suspended its circulation for the day as a protest against the blatant censorship.

The proofs addressed the issues of abducted Chinese citizens and the crisis in Darfur, and criticized the Sudanese president's statement excluding some Sudanese tribes from holding citizenship, amongst other controversial views.

In a separate incident, on 25 October, security forces in Nayala, southern Darfur, released journalist Nour Al Din Mohamed Suleiman Baima, the Darfur correspondent for "Ajras Al Hurriya" newspaper ( http://ajrasalhurriya.net/ar/index.php ). He was arrested on 11 October following his participation in a dialogue held in Nayala concerning the Qatari initiative between Sudanese political forces and local civil society organisations. A group of plainclothes security personnel took him by force to an unidentified location where he was held until his release.

ANHRI not only denounces the arrest of Suleiman Barima and the continuing suppression of the press but also demands an end to the harassment of journalists and press censorship by the Sudanese government.