Sudan’s PM calls for amendment of the law to control e- journalism

Khartoum-SudaneseOnline-Sudan’s Parliament member from the ruling National Congress Party (NCP), Abbas Al-Khidir, has called to amend the Press and Publications Act to control electronic journalism press, pointing out that the security interventions in the work of the press distorted the image of the country abroad despite the availability of press freedoms in the country. “We need to amend the law to be effective." He added
For his part, Sudan Parliament Speaker, Al-Fatih Azzedin, confirmed that his parliament is looking forward to amend the Press and Publications Act
Since the beginning of the year, Sudanese authorities have taken a hardened stance against the media, even targeting publications known to be traditionally pro-government. The Constitutional Court’s decision on 5 March 2014 to lift suspension measures taken almost two years ago against Al-Tayar newspaper came amid heavy crackdowns on the press. Reporters Without Borders has counted at least 18 confiscations or suspensions of newspapers in Sudan since January 2014.
Reporters Without Borders has also strongly condemned the oppressive climate the Sudanese authorities are imposing on the media community, which ranked 172th out of the 180 countries listed in its 2014 Press Freedom Index. Cléa Kahn-Sriber, the head of Reporters Without Borders Africa Desk, explained that “This particular harmful strategy of seizing already printed newspapers amounts to a de facto suspension of publications without having to come up with legal motives and while condemning these papers to a slow financial agony.” But recent confiscations “are sadly only a drop in the ocean of arbitrary measures taken by the NISS against the media in Sudan.”

Arabic Forum