Sudan

This brief explores the repressive elements of media and technology-related laws in Sudan and how they have been used to undermine freedom of expression and other civil liberties in the aftermath of president Omar al-Bashir’s April 2019 overthrow.

The use of disproportionate, excessive force to disperse protests in violent repeated crackdowns, without ensuring that security operations pose a minimal risk to life, according to many people Human Rights Watch interviewed, was a deliberate attempt to intimidate the movement and break the resolve of protesters.

The highly restrictive Press and Printed Press Materials Law of 2004 was updated in November 2016 to include specific clauses pertaining to online journalism, extending onerous limitations long placed on the traditional press to the online sphere

The editors of three newspapers were arrested and charged with offenses that could carry the death penalty during the year, though all were released pending trial.

Ranked 152nd in annual global media freedom report

Journalists ordered to describe protestors as “vandals” and “saboteurs”

“Scoring high in censorship”

“The government shuts down the Internet to restrict coverage of protests”

Ranked 172nd in annual press freedom index

175 youth killed during mass protests

Ranked 174th in annual global media freedom report

“Members of the National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS) routinely raided printing facilities in 2012 to confiscate editions of newspapers considered to be in violation of the Act”

Sudanese have lowest rates of telecommunications access in the region, making journalism difficult

Sudanese journalists subject to “censorship, closures of newspapers, and arrests, prolonged detention and mistreatment”

Darfuri journalists and activists affiliated with Radio Dabanga face criminal charges punishable by death