

June 14, 2018 (KHARTOUM) - Sudanese security service Thursday enforced a new crackdown on journalists and the press as it withdrew the licence of a journalist reporting for a pan Arab newspaper and confiscated the entire print-runs of local newspapers.

Ahmed Younes, the correspondent of Asharq aA-Awast told Sudan Tribune that the National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS) withdrew his licence and stopped him from reporting to his London based newspaper.

He further said his suspension and the withdrawal of licence come as a continuation of the abuse he experienced from the NISS agents who had summoned him and threatened to remove his permit on 7 June.

NISS agents interrogated Younes on an article where he predicted a bloody purge (a Night of the Long Knives) within the National Congress Party, as he referred to a power struggle among the different factions of the ruling party.

The Sudanese journalist who has been reporting to Asharq Alawsat since 2010, expressed regret over the systematic crackdown on the Sudanese press through confiscation of copies and suspension of newspapers or journalists.

Another Sudanese journalist Shamael al-Nur last Tuesday told Sudan Tribune that she had been ordered by the NISS to stop writing negatively or positively about President Omer al-Bashir.

On 9 June, in her daily column in Al-Tayyar, Shamael called for the resignation of President Omer al-Bashir saying it would help to end sanctions on Sudan and benefit to its economy.

To punish the newspaper for publishing this column, the security apparatus on confiscated the print-runs of Al-Tayyar on 10 and 11 June.

Also, for the third time, the NISS seized the copies of Al-Tayyar on Thursday 14 June without providing an explanation for its decision.

Reacting to the attacks on the Sudanese journalist and press, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) Thursday condemned the recent restrictions against the newspapers in Sudan and called on the NISS to stop press censorship.

The press freedom group also pointed to the seizure of Al-Youm Altaly copies on 13 June and the deliberate delay for the distribution of Al-Jareeda daily for covering Ahmed Younis’s ban from reporting.

(ST)