Freedoms expanding towards the better after National Dialogue

The President of the Sudan Press Freedom Organizations, Dr Najeeb Adam Gamar-Eddin, said he believed press freedoms in the Sudan are expanding towards the better, particularly after the National Dialogue Conference, an impetus to better press freedoms in the country.

Gamar Eddin in a press briefing he gave on Monday reviewed areas of press freedoms, in the first half of the current fiscal year 2017 compared to the same period last year, 2016, all in comparison with the situation regionally and globally.

Gamar Eddin said last year political daily were suspended in 61 cases, which impacted the scene of press freedoms in the country.

However, he pinpointed, exceptional measures have dwindled during the first part of the current fiscal year 2017 where only three cases of suspensions were reported, an indication of a betterment in the press freedom status in the country.

The head of the organization said from 2012 up to 2016 over824 journalists succumbed while doing their jobs in the world. He said some were targeted directly and intentionally while other were kidnapped or assassinated in a systematic manner after they were taken away, some of them in action covering civil strife. 

He lamented that in some cases the culprits were never apprehended or brought to face justice.

He also referred to cases of intimidations and cases where the authors of the intended crimes failed to carry out their threats.

Out of the total number of countries were journalists and media people were killed, 22 were African and or Arab countries. He said dozens of journalists were injured and others narrowly escaped death. However, he stressed, Sudan has not witnessed any of those cases of kidnapping, killing or injury of journalists or media people.

He said 220 journalists were put behind the bars for longer period in 2014, with similar number undergoing the same ordeal in 2015. 

He said 142 journalists were either arrested, tried or kidnapped in 2016, whereas in the following year some 246 journalist suffered the same penalties and harassments, according to international press freedom reports.

He said Sudan saw no cases of summoning for longer period or police detentions. He has however conceded that three cases of police short time detention and summing occurred in the Sudan.

He said Sudanese opposition to the government have found a huge platform to express their views and drive home their differences. He recalls of a few number of Arab countries that enjoy such freedoms.