Sudan protest : Govt confiscates popular daily newspapers

A journalist in the capital Khartoum, Hassan Ahmed Berkia, has reported that state intelligence agency, NISS, today confiscated editions of the popular daily, Al-Watan newspaper.
The latest move confirms a long standing government tactic in seeking to suppress the independent media. NISS had also prevented printing of Al Jareeda and Al-Tayar dailies on Monday and confiscated the Al-Baath weekly after it had been printed.
President Omar Al-Bashir has slammed the manner of media reportage on the ongoing protests. Speaking on his second trip outside Sudan since the protests started, Bashir suggested in Egypt that the media was over blowing the crisis.
“We do not claim there is no problem, but it is not of the size or dimensions that some of the media portray.”
“This is an attempt to copy the Arab Spring in Sudan, these are the same slogans and appeals and the very wide use of social media sites,” he said during a press conference.
Weeks back, the government expelled a number of foreign journalists covering the development. A “wanted list” for over 30 journalists was also released.
The protests continue in different parts of the country making it difficult for security service to contain the spread and effect. Port Sudan was on lock down yesterday, January 28.
Protesters in Sudan are trying to imitate the Arab Spring uprisings that shook the region in 2011, President Omar al-Bashir said on Sunday during a visit to Egypt.
Bashir is facing the most sustained challenge since he came to power in a coup in 1989. Demonstrators have turned out almost daily across the country to call for an end to his rule.
Bashir’s trip to neighbouring Egypt is his second foreign visit since unrest began on Dec. 19. He has also visited Qatar.
Speaking next to his Egyptian counterpart Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, Bashir blamed unnamed “harmful organisations” for working to destabilise the region.
“We do not claim there is no problem, but it is not of the size or dimensions that some of the media portray.”
“This is an attempt to copy the Arab Spring in Sudan, these are the same slogans and appeals and the very wide use of social media sites.”
Citing what he said was the “harmful agitation” that such countries had witnessed, he added: “The Sudanese people are alert and will not allow for any intrusion or attempt to destabilise the security of Sudan.”
In Khartoum sit-ins began in some public squares in response to an appeal from a professionals’ association that has led calls for protests.
One of the slogans used by Sudanese protesters — “The people want the fall of the regime” — was made famous by uprisings in Tunisia, Egypt and other Arab states.
REUTERS