by Joseph Oduha
March 8, 2019
On March 5, 2019, the Sudanese Journalists Network (SJN) called on its members to “go on strike”.
The resultant, nation-wide protest was triggered by an unprecedented wave of detentions of journalists – 90! – by the government in the period from February 20 – March 4, 2019.
Another cause of the protest: the shutting down of the country’s newspapers. One of them – El Baath – has had 11 straight print runs confiscated by the government.
The journalists’ and the newspapers’ “crime”: their ongoing coverage of the unrest gripping Sudan, whose people are protesting the corrupt and oppressive regime of president Omar al-Bashir.
These arrest come upon the heels of the detention of 79 journalists in the period December 19 – February 19, according to figures released by Reporters without Borders (RSF).
