Sudan has banned an independent daily "without giving any reason" and seized the copies of another that was set to publish an interview with a top member of the government of South Sudan, their editors said on Tuesday.
Security agents took all copies of Tuesday's edition of independent daily Al-Ahram after they had been printed late on Monday, saying they were doing so because the paper was running an interview with Pagan Amum, its editor Abdelmajid Abdelhamid told AFP.
"According to them, this was unacceptable."
Amum, the secretary general of South Sudan's ruling party and its chief negotiator in the ongoing peace talks, has frequently accused Khartoum of attacking the South and of obstructing the negotiations.
Separately, Osman Mirghani, editor in chief of independent daily Al-Tayar, said the security forces had informed the paper, also on Monday evening, that it was banned from publishing for an unspecified period of time, and "without giving any reason."
Al-Tayar was banned from publishing in February, with Mirghani saying at the time that he thought the censorship was linked to his paper's recent coverage of alleged government corruption.
The latest moves come amid concerns about deteriorating press freedom under the government of President Omar al-Bashir, which has coincided with escalating tensions between Khartoum and Juba.
Sudanese journalists and members of the opposition Communist Party held a sit-in last week to protest repeated restrictions against their newspaper, Al-Midan. Staff said security agents had blocked the distribution of their paper 13 times over the past month.
On the same day, Al-Jarida's managing editor said the independent daily had also been prevented from distributing its latest edition by state security.
Source: AFP
