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.

Tagged:
Copyright © 2009 allAfrica.com. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.

AllAfrica publishes around 500 reports a day from more than 100 news organizations and over 500 other institutions and individuals, representing a diversity of positions on every topic. We publish news and views ranging from vigorous opponents of governments to government publications and spokespersons. Publishers named above each report are responsible for their own content, which AllAfrica does not have the legal right to edit or correct.

Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica. To address comments or complaints, please Contact us.