Sudanese journalist fined over column criticizing police
New York, August 22, 2017—Sudanese authorities yesterday fined Suheir Abdelrahim, a columnist for the daily Al-Tayyar, for a column criticizing the police, according to news reports. The Committee to Protect Journalists condemned the sentence and called on authorities not to contest the journalist’s appeal.
At an earlier hearing, the Khartoum Press Court, which handles complaints against the media, convicted Abdelrahim of insulting the police and violating an article of the Sudanese Penal Code and Press Act, which covers “disseminating false news that spreads chaos or undermines the state’s prestige,” Abdelrahim’s lawyer Nabil Adib told journalists.
At yesterday’s hearing, the press court ordered Abdelrahim to pay a 3,000 Sudanese pound fine (US$450) and Al-Tayyar to pay a 5,000 Sudanese pound fine for the column, which was published in November 2016, according to reports. In the column, Abdelrahim criticized the police for focusing on the theft of shoes from a mosque instead of investigating corruption and theft of public property, according to news reports. Adib said that the columnist plans to appeal.
CPJ attempted to contact Abdelrahim and her lawyer, but was unable to determine contact details for them.
“Sudan should not contest the appeal of Al-Tayyar columnist Suheir Abdelrahim, and should instead focus on amending the laws that led to these fines,” said CPJ Middle East and North Africa Program Coordinator Sherif Mansour from Washington D.C. “Journalists should be free to report and comment critically on matters of public interest, without fear of harassment or legal action.”
Separately, the Sudanese National Intelligence and Security Service confiscated all copies of the August 20 issue of the daily Al-Saiha, according to news reports. The security service did not explain the reason for the confiscation, according to the reports. Journalists from the paper were cited in news reports saying that the confiscation order may be related to Al-Saiha’s coverage of tensions between military leaders and President Omar al-Bashir.
The National Intelligence and Security Service did not immediately respond to CPJ’s emails requesting comment.
In 2015, CPJ documented how Sudanese authorities confiscated editions of Al-Tayyar and Al-Saiha, along with 12 other newspapers, without providing an explanation. In recent years, the security service has confiscated entire print runs when a paper publishes content it disapproves of, as a way to censor the news and forces publications to incur significant financial losses.
Sherif Mansour
Middle East and North Africa Program Coordinator
smansour@cpj.org
facebook.com/CPJinArabic
@CPJMENA
Ray Hanania is an award winning political and humor columnist who analyzes American and Middle East politics, and life in general. He is an author of several books.
Hanania covered Chicago Politics and Chicago City Hall from 1976 through 1992 at the Daily Southtown and the Chicago Sun-Times. He began writing in 1975 publishing The Middle Eastern Voice newspaper in Chicago (1975-1977). He later published “The National Arab American Times” newspaper (2004-2007).
Hanania writes weekly columns on Middle East and American Arab issues as Special US Correspondent for the Arab News ArabNews.com, at TheArabDailyNews.com, and at SuburbanChicagoland.com. He has published weekly columns in the Jerusalem Post newspaper, YNetNews.com, Newsday, the Orlando Sentinel, Houston Chronical, and Arlington Heights Daily Herald.
Hanania is the recipient of four (4) Chicago Headline Club “Peter Lisagor Awards” for Column writing. In November 2006, he was named “Best Ethnic American Columnist” by the New American Media. In 2009, Hanania received the prestigious Sigma Delta Chi Award for Writing from the Society of Professional Journalists. He is the recipient of the MT Mehdi Courage in Journalism Award. He was honored for his writing skills with two (2) Chicago Stick-o-Type awards from the Chicago Newspaper Guild. In 1990, Hanania was nominated by the Chicago Sun-Times editors for a Pulitzer Prize for his four-part series on the Palestinian Intifada.
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