Strong position for editors-in-chief

In the news, a number of the daily newspapers' chief editors announced their rejection of a decision by the Ministry of Justice to establish an attorney for the press in Gazeera state, stressing that the move of shifting the press attorney to Madani was humiliating for them. The chief editors decided to reject the move and stick for the attorney’s location to be in the Khartoum state as it represents a base for all the press institutions, printing and distribution companies, pointing out that the decision is contrary to a previous statement by the former Minister of Justice in this regard.

The editors-in-chief went further to decide that they would not comply with decision of the Minister of Justice and stand against it by all available means, adding that they would reject all the forms of harassment on the newspapers and violation of freedoms. They vowed to adopt a number of steps to escalate the issue in case the Ministry of Justice failed to respond to their demand for revoking the decision.

I strongly support and endorse the editors-in-chief in their move to completely abolish such decision and any similar decisions aimed at clamping down on the press and freedom of expression.

I’m also glad to finally see that some editors-in-chief of the daily newspapers adopt a united stand against the repeated violations that target and threaten the future of journalism in the country, and I hope that the rest of the editors-in-chief would join hands with them to raise alarm bells on such unprecedented clamp down on journalists, as the hostility towards journalists and newspapers has recently reached a peak that calls for unity of all segments of the press community.

I also call on the authorities to return to their senses and to immediately stop the clamp down on the press and journalists as well to review their radical attitudes against freedoms of opinion and expression that are contrary to norms and international and humanitarian conventions.