Sudan: Bashir Ends Pre-Publication Censorship

28 September 2009
allAfrica.com

Sudan's government has replaced pre-publication censorship with "self-censorship," reports the Sudan Tribune from Khartoum.

Quoting state media, the news service reported Sunday that President Omar al-Bashir had instructed the National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS) to end pre-publication censorship on newspapers with immediate effect.

"The NISS has proposed a ‘Journalistic Honor Accord’ by which journalists agree to exercise 'self-censorship' by avoiding writing on certain topics likely to be removed under normal circumstances," the Tribune reported.

It quoted Bashir as saying that editors should "avoid what leads to exceeding the red lines and avoid mixing what is patriotic and what is destructive to the nation, sovereignty, security, values and its morality.”

Sudan is scheduled to hold elections next year.

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