State targets leading newspapers

Sudanese security agents last week confiscated the entire print runs of two newspapers soon after the EU and US pushed for press freedoms in the country. A report on the News24 site notes that agents of Sudan's National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS) seized copies of Al-Tayar and Al-Jareeda after their editors attended a meeting held by the EU at its office in Khartoum. ‘They confiscated our newspaper copies without giving any reason,’ Al-Tayar's owner and editor-in-chief Osman Mirghani. The owner of Al-Jareeda confirmed that security agents had seized about 10 000 copies of his newspaper on Thursday. Several journalists were arrested in January when authorities cracked down on anti-government protests triggered by surging food prices. Media watchdog Reporters Without Borders ranked Sudan 174th out of 180 countries on its 2017 world press freedom index, saying the NISS ‘hounds journalists and censors the print media’.