Sudan has decided to lift prior censorship on the written press. Paris-based Reporters Sans Frontières (RSF), however, called for this announcement to be followed by real change and accompanied by further steps allowing greater press freedom in Sudan.
President Omar al-Bashir on September 27 put an end by decree to censorship of all publications before printing that has been carried out by the intelligence services for the past 20 months. It was the result of an agreement between several editors in the written press, the national association of journalists and the intelligence services and was linked to the signing of a journalistic “ethical code”. Some publishers and editors refused to sign the agreement on the grounds that they were not party to the talks and that the code was dictated by the authorities.
“The decision to lift prior censorship should not be allowed to remain a form of window dressing with the aim of reassuring the international community”, RSF said.
“It is only by applying and extending it to the entire media that this step will constitute genuine and encouraging progress on the right to inform the public. In the run-up to general elections in 2010 and the referendum in 2011, we urge the Khartoum government to allow journalists to move around the country freely and to cover all subjects without risk of coming under pressure”, said RSF.
The lifting of censorship has already been negotiated and announced several times in the past few months, but without actually being put into effect. RSF in November 2008 wrote a leader column, published in the Sudanese press and headlined, “For the good of the country, stop censoring”. "Censorship is useless because it is powerless against reality”, the organisation said.
