Crackdown: Sudan seizes print runs of 9 papers

KHARTOUM: Sudanese security forces seized the Monday print runs of nine newspapers and suspended the publishing licenses of four of them in a major media crackdown, editors and an NGO said.
National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS) officers often confiscate newspapers over articles they deem inappropriate, but it is rare for them to seize so many at once.
“The security apparatus seized the editions of nine different newspapers on Monday” without saying why, the Journalists for Human Rights Sudan (JHR) NGO said in a statement.
NISS seized the Monday editions of “Al-Sudani, Al-Jarida, Akhir Lahza, Al-Intibaha, Al-Rai Al-Aam, Alwan, Al-Tayar, Al-Khartoum, and Al-Yom Al-Tali” dailies, JHR Sudan said.
Afterwards, NISS agents called the editors of four papers to tell them their publishing licenses had been suspended.
“The security and intelligence apparatus told us by phone that Al-Khartoum newspaper and three others — Al-Jarida, Akhir Lahza and Al-Intibaha — were all suspended for an unspecified time,” said Al-Bagir Ahmed Abdallah, Al-Khartoum’s chief editor.
Abdullah was told his paper had been suspended over a story about a consumer rights forum where one speaker discussed “the sexual abuse of school- and nursery- children on the buses that transport them,” he said, adding that the decision to seize the papers had come from the head of NISS.
The chief editors of pro-government daily Akhir Lahza and independent Al-Jarida confirmed NISS had called to say their publishing licenses were suspended but had not given reasons.
Al-Intibaha’s managing editor also said he had been notified of his paper’s suspension.