Sudan paper suspended for "insulting" president

Tuesday 8 January 2008.

January 7, 2008 (JUBA) — A Sudanese newspaper has been ordered to shut down for two days after being accused of insulting President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, the paper’s editor and owner said on Monday.

Nhial Bol said Sudan’s National Press Council had suspended his English language daily The Citizen over an editorial it wrote about armed clashes on the country’s north-south border.

"The National Press Council ... (said) an article was insulting to President Bashir and so they suspended us for two days," said Bol, who estimates he will lose $7,500 on advertising during the shutdown next Saturday and Sunday.

Newspapers have to register with the National Press Council, Sudan’s official press regulator, and cannot publish if their membership is suspended.

Bol said that his paper, which has its newsroom in south Sudan’s capital Juba, had been shut down nine times before by the press council.

"Sometimes they allow you to print and then they come and take all the papers. Comparatively, this is a light punishment," he said.

No one was immediately available for comment from the National Press Council.

(Reuters)