Monitoring the media's election coverage in Sudan. Photo: Brigitte Sins/IMS

The government of Sudan has re-introduced press censorship on newspapers. All newspapers will be screened by censors from the National Intelligence Services before they are published

By Helle Nordberg, IMS 

The news of the Government's imposed censorship on newspapers in Sudan coincides with the publication of the seventh report which compiles the monitoring results of Sudanese media's pre- and post-election coverage. On 19 May, the government of Sudan re-introduced a censorship mechanism for newspapers which was previously lifted by President El Bashir on 27 September 2009. Now all newspapers will be screened by censors from the National State Intelligence Services before they are published.

According to Article 19, earlier in the week the state security shut down Rai Al Shaab newspaper and detained four of its journalists without any charge. The paper is associated to the Popular National Congress Party, and its leader, Al Turabi. The Government's decision to re-impose the newspaper censorship mechanism contravenes the 2005 Sudan Interim Constitution, as well as regional and international obligations on the promotion and protection of human rights, and freedom of expression, to which Sudan is a party.

Setback for Sudanese media

The move to increase censorship is a setback in Sudan, where media monitoring results of Sudanese media's election coverage carried out by IMS and five international partners (The Sudan Media and Elections Consortium, SMEC) was showing a positive trend within the print and electronic media away from hate speech towards more moderate coverage. monitoring results show that post-election news within the media has dwindled substantially, but existing coverage focussed on the rigging of votes, threats to peace, and election-related conflicts in the Upper Nile and Jonglei.

In addition to media monitoring, the SMEC also carried out training of journalists in the skill of election coverage, as most had never covered elections before in light of the 24 years that had passed since the country's last elections. 

Read the seventh monitoring report of Sudanese media's election coverage here. Read the Arabic language version here.  

Notes to the editor

The Sudan Media and Elections project is implemented by the Sudan Media and Elections Consortium (SMEC), a group of national and international organisations with expertise in media support. The SMEC carries out media monitoring of four TV stations, seventeen radio channels and thirteen newspapers in Sudan on a daily basis.

Media Monitoring Units began their activities on 13 February 2010 at the opening of the election campaign. Monitoring will continue until the end of May 2010 to assess post election coverage.

The Media and Elections Project, funded by United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), is implemented by the Sudan Media and Elections Consortium, a group of national and international organisations with expertise in media support. The group comprises the Sudanese Development Initiative (SUDIA), International Media Support (IMS), the Arab Working Group for Media Monitoring (AWG), Fojo Media Institute, Norwegian Peoples Aid (NPA), and Osservatorio di Pavia.