Executive Summary

This report monitors the Sudanese army's illegal practices against journalists and media outlets from the beginning of the military coup on 25 October 2021 until 8 March 2022. During this period, about 55 attacks have taken place against journalists and local, Arab, and international media outlets in the country. These violations included arbitrary detentions, harassments, raiding and closing media offices, and assaulting journalists physically or psychologically.

An analysis of these attacks shows that the de-facto military authority apparently aims to obstruct or block media coverage of the ongoing popular protests against the military rule. The army wants to keep its violations against the demonstrators—including the killing of 92 and wounding of hundreds from the beginning of the coup to the end of 26 March 2022—hidden.

Euro-Med Monitor's research team encountered difficulties extracting testimonies from journalists who expressed fears of persecution or assault if they spoke about violations. Other journalists said they did not wish to publish their testimonies, reflecting the reality of poor media freedom in the country.

The report concludes that the de facto military authority in Sudan blatantly violates the Sudanese constitution and a number of relevant international conventions and agreements in terms of the freedom of the press. It also concludes that the army protects the perpetrators and ensures that they enjoy impunity by disabling legal tools and controlling key judicial and oversight entities.

Methodology

This report reviews the violations against journalists and media institutions in Sudan following the coup led by the President of the Sovereign Council, Lieutenant-General Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan, on 25 October 2021 through 8 March 2022.

Since the start of the coup in Sudan and the events that followed, Euro-Med Monitor’s research team began documenting attacks against journalists and press institutions on the ground on a daily basis. However, the figures in this report reflect only the incidents we were able to document and verify. Undoubtedly, other incidents remain unreported, and human rights organizations and the media have not been able to document them.

The report traces the sequence of events through observation, monitoring, and documentation. Our team conducted a series of interviews with independent journalists, several activists, and others working for local and international press agencies. Euro-Med Monitor obtained consent from the journalists and informed them of the purpose of the interviews and the nature of the information that will be used and published.

The research team verified the validity of the data given in the interviews, including details of incidents of attacks on journalists and the storming of press and media institutions.

The team had difficulty obtaining the consent of some journalists to document and publish their testimonies and their names, while others withdrew their consent to publish their testimonies, fearing retribution from the de-facto authority.

In addition to primary sources, the report uses secondary sources, including reports and documents from local bodies, such as the Sudanese Journalists Network. The report also used documentary videos, technology indicators published via trusted technology sites, and medical reports.

The report presents key patterns of violations suffered by workers in the press profession and press institutions after the coup. It also provides a legal review of the impact of violations of journalists’ rights on the exercise of press freedom and expression, in accordance with relevant international covenants and covenants. Finally, it provides recommendations to promote respect for freedom of the press and publication and the protection of the rights of journalists in Sudan.

Background

Sudan has been experiencing a decline in human rights for years. It escalated with the start of popular protests against President Omar al-Bashir in December 2018 before the army isolated him in April 2019. However, the situation dramatically deteriorated after the army carried out a military coup on 25 October 2021, when it declared a state of emergency, dissolved the Sovereignty Council and the Council of Ministers, and relieved all state officials from their positions.

These measures were followed by a policy of clamping down on public freedoms. This particularly affected the rights of journalists and media outlets, as the authorities severely restricted their activities and subjected them to many violations during their coverage of the popular protests against the military coup, including preventing them from working, arresting them, and raiding their headquarters.

Press freedom in Sudan after the military coup

The media sector in Sudan suffers from strict security control in the meantime. Restrictions were imposed on freedom of expression, there were repeated Internet blackouts, and punitive measures were enforced against media outlets that covered the popular protests and human rights violations that followed the coup.

The de-facto authority had taken a set of measures that appeared to be retaliatory against a number of local and international media outlets that covered the events following the coup, including withdrawing the license of the Al-Jazeera Mubasher TV channel and raiding the headquarters of the Al-Hadath TV channel, attacking its employees, and destroying its devices and equipment, in addition to closing a number of radio stations and restricting the work of others.

Contrary to the situation on the ground, the Sudanese constitution guarantees the freedom of expression and the press, however, many of the local laws, such as emergency laws and articles of the Penal Code, impede the same freedoms. These laws have been used by the de facto authorities since the beginning of the coup to censor the media and intimidate journalists and activists. Covering the events that followed the coup and the human rights violations against protesters are considered red lines, and journalists are held accountable under those laws and procedures.

Journalist Hussam El-Din Haidar, former Secretary-General of the National Council for Press and Publications, told Euro-Med Monitor: "This striking targeting of journalists began about two weeks before the coup. I was the Secretary-General of the National Council for Press and Publications, a position equal to a Minister of State. I was appointed in July 2021. After the coup, I was subjected to several arrest attempts, and I was dismissed from my job. A decision was issued by Al-Burhan to expel me from work and appoint a member of the former regime to my position.”

"The de-facto military authority has expelled 70 employees of the official news agency (SUNA), including the director of the agency, Mohamed Abdel Hamid, as well as many employees of Sudan TV."

Despite the development of media activity, especially after the emergence of social media platforms, the media situation in Sudan is different. The facto authority's procedures seek to exclude online media interaction with the protests by cutting off or slowing down the Internet under the pretext of the state of emergency and the preservation of Sudanese national security. This greatly affected the work of journalists and media organizations.

Walid Ahmed, a digital journalist at Euro-Med Monitor, said: “The internet blackout after the military coup has significantly affected access to information, and thus the ability of digital journalists and media outlets to play their role in covering ongoing field events and delivering regular news. This posed a major threat to a number of journalists, who lost their jobs due to their inability to perform their assigned duties.”

"The content of electronic newspapers is being monitored. The Information Crimes Department summoned my colleague Sadia Al-Siddiq, who works in the Al-Tayyar electronic newspaper, several times, and issued an arrest warrant against her after she published a report on economic corruption.”

"The press laws related in Sudan focus on criminalizing journalistic work. These laws were used mainly after the coup to prosecute and restrict digital journalism."

Data published by NetBlocks (a non-governmental group concerned with monitoring internet activities) showed that Sudan experienced significant disruption to both fixed-line and mobile Internet services from early 25 October 2021 to 18 November. The restrictions imposed on social media remained enforced until Wednesday, 24 November 2021, which confirms user reports about weak communication networks and the Internet during that period.

Violations against journalists and the media

The violations against journalists after the coup have taken many forms that reflect the determination of the de-facto authority to clamp down on journalists’ and press institutions' right to the press and freedom of publication.

• Breaking into and closing press offices and institutions

The de-facto authority raided and closed the headquarters of several press institutions. On 30 December 2021, security forces stormed the office of the Al-Hadath channel in Khartoum, assaulted the channel's employees, fired tear gas at them, and confiscated some of their equipment.

About two weeks later, on 13 January 2022, security forces raided the office of the Al-Araby TV channel in Khartoum while the channel was covering the demonstrations. Apparently, this attack aimed at influencing the work of the channel's team, which covered the popular protests.

A few days later, on 18 January 2022, the Ministry of Information decided to close the office of the Al Jazeera Mubasher TV channel and withdraw the licenses of reporter Mohamed Omar and photographer Badawi Bashir, for allegedly non-professional covering of Sudanese affairs, according to the Sudanese Ministry of Information.

Journalist Lina Yaqoub Bagh, a correspondent of the Al-Hadath channel, told Euro-Med Monitor: "On 30 December 2021, the demonstrators arrived in the vicinity of the channel's office on the ground floor of a nine-story building in Khartoum. As part of our direct coverage of the event, we reported the police forces' assault on the demonstrators. It seems that it came to the security forces' attention that we were filming live, so they came to the building and beat up the photographers and producers in the office. Then, when the security forces recognized my identity, they took me along with a colleague who was trying to protect me out of the building and beat us in the street. They said we were bringing shame to them and shouted at us with many insults. This attack left a number of colleagues injured, one of whom was moderately wounded. The SNG broadcasting device was destroyed. They also confiscated my Thuraya device and three other phones.”

Euro-Med Monitor documented that the de-facto authorities shut down 36 local radio stations from 25 October until 10 November 2021 against the background of their coverage of popular protests. They are:

1. Al Rabia FM
2. Khartoum FM
3. SportsFM
4. Radio Al-Furqan
5. BBC Radio
6. Radio FM Al Bassera
7. Saharon Radio
8. Health and Life Radio
9. Radio Bokra
10. Radio Darfur
11. Capital Radio
12. Radio Hawa Sudan
13. Hala FM Radio
14. Vision FM
15. Al-Massa' Radio
16. Al-Mihan professions
17. Hawass FM
18. Africa Radio
19. Radio Monte Carlo
20. Al-Noor Radio
21. Al Kawthar Radio
22. Taiba Radio
23. Blue Nile Radio
24. Radio Sawa
25. Altassel Radio
26. Alhia Radio
27. Sawt Al-Mathani Radio
28. Sudan Radio 24
29. Livestock FM
30. Radio Dabanga
31. Omdurman Islamic University Radio
32. University of Khartoum Radio
33. Sudan Academy Radio
34. Sudan International University Radio
35. Sudan Open University Radio
36. Altbia Radio

Journalist Yasser Abu Shamal, General Director of Hala Radio, told the Euro-Med Monitor: "We are not affiliated with any political party and are committed to reporting events in a transparent manner. However, when the coup took place, all radio stations were closed for five days. Then, they allowed them to resume their work, except Hala Radio. When we asked military officials, they told us that the channel incites against the army and its leaders and distorts their image. We made it clear to them that we do not offend the army but criticize the military's engagement in politics. They tried to convince us that what happened was a corrective course and not a coup, and we had to adopt it, but we refused. The radio station remained closed until 6 December 2021. This closure resulted in huge material losses.”

"We receive indirect messages from time to time that we are not welcome, leaving us anxious about being shut down again, which greatly affected our work."

• Harassment and arbitrary detention

The de facto military authorities did not only storm and close media offices; they also harassed and arbitrarily detained dozens of journalists.

More than 20 journalists have been arbitrarily detained from 25 October 2021 until the end of February 2022 against the background of their media activity in covering popular protests.

The security forces pursued journalists on the ground while covering the popular protests or arrested them from their homes. This behavior indicates that the crackdown on journalists came in an organized campaign that aimed to conceal the truth about the violations taking place against demonstrators and human rights activists, restrict freedom of expression, and send a message of intimidation to press agencies working in Sudan that everyone will be under the sway of security prosecution.

Mohamed Al-Fateh, a member of the secretariat of the Sudanese Journalists Network, told Euro-Med Monitor that: "Movement was banned for two weeks after the announcement of the military coup in the capital, Khartoum. The military and security forces closed the three bridges connecting the city, paralyzing the movement of journalists and suspending printed press publications since workers were not able to reach their workplaces. Cutting off the Internet has greatly limited the ability of journalists to practice their work. Recently, we have to hide who we are so that the chances of getting attacked do not double."

Many journalists in Sudan have recently decided to hide their professional identities to avoid harassment. Journalist Wael Mohamed El-Hassan, a correspondent of the Al-Araby Channel, told Euro-Med Monitor: “We were repeatedly harassed and threatened by security personnel when we were covering the demonstrations. This forced us to conceal our professional identity during our work. We deliberately did not wear clothes that distinguished us as journalists, and we put cameras and press equipment in normal bags so that the security personnel would not notice them.”

"On 13 January 2022, when we returned to the channel’s office after covering a live event, the security forces showered us with tear gas canisters when we were on the roof of the building. When we were about to go downstairs, we found 10 to 12 four-wheel-drive vehicles, each with ten security personnel waiting for us at the gate of the building. They beat and shouted at us with insults and accusations of treason.”

"They took me and all my co-workers to the General Command headquarters and interrogated us for five hours. They threatened to frame us with killing an army officer. They also destroyed some equipment that we had, including a camera. We were released several hours later."

• Physical and psychological attacks:

A number of journalists were physically assaulted as part of a series of repressive measures carried out by the security forces against local and international media following the coup.

Many journalists were physically assaulted while covering the protests or during the storming of the headquarters of media institutions. Some journalists sustained injuries, fractures, or gunshot wounds during the dispersal of protests in different cities of Sudan.

Journalist Ali Farsab told Euro-Med Monitor: "I was covering the protests of 17 November 2021, in the Khartoum North area, which is about 2 km away from the Republican Palace, when the security forces fired live bullets at the demonstrators. I took shelter behind a concrete cover, but it did not save me from bullets, as I sustained a superficial wound in the head. I witnessed the death of a protester beside me after he was shot dead with a bullet in the head. After that, the security forces arrested me and took me to a nearby location. More than 30 of them beat me with sticks and batons and dragged me down the street. Then, I was taken to another location where security vehicles gathered away from the demonstrators. They continued to beat me and confiscated my personal belongings, including a phone I used for press coverage.”

"We were taken to the Al-Muqrin Police station, which is about one kilometer from the Republican Palace. But before that, we stopped at the Emergency Management Center, where there was a police officer with the rank of brigadier general who asked to meet me and one of the demonstrators. He accused me of filming the burning of police cars and asked me whether I am a journalist and where I work. He accused me of fabricating facts. When we reached the Al-Muqrin police station, which is adjacent to the center, I asked a policeman to inform the administration that I need health care, but my request was refused. On the second day, I repeated the request, but they did not respond, knowing that my head was bleeding as a result of the injury. On 20 November, they took me to the police hospital for treatment, but they took me back to the center under the pretext of getting permission."

Farsab stated that his family and some of his fellow journalists asked to meet with him, but the center's administration refused. No one was allowed to meet him before 21 November, the day he was released at about one in the afternoon.

Journalist Maha Al-Talb, Al-Sharq channel correspondent, said: "I was subjected to two attacks, the first was on 25 October, in the early hours of the coup, when we were covering the events from the channel’s office. Military Intelligence forces came and identified themselves. They took us to the Military Intelligence headquarters near the Presidential Palace on Nile Street. They said the reason for the arrest is that we had documented the security forces' beating of demonstrators. After several hours of interrogation, they released us. As for the second attack, it occurred during my coverage of the demonstrations on 19 December near the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Police forces deliberately targeted us and hit us with batons on the limbs and shoulders. Every time we told them that we were journalists, they doubled the beating.”

"On the same morning, members of the Military Intelligence came to the channel's office, searched my personal phone, and made sure that I had not filmed the demonstrations from the office's headquarters."

Timeline: Most prominent violations against journalists and the media in Sudan

Between 25 October 2021, and 8 March 2022, Euro-Med Monitor documented 55 violations, including various individual and collective attacks against journalists and media outlets in Sudan. These violations included imposing internet blackout, arresting a number of officials in the Sudanese Ministry of Information; repeated incursions into media institutions; and arresting, beating, threatening, and intimidating a number of Sudanese journalists for their coverage of the protests.

Legal position

The coup affected the rights of journalists and local and international press institutions. These rights are protected under the interim constitution of Sudan, which was signed by representatives of the Transitional Military Council and the Alliance of Forces of Freedom and Change on 4 August 2019.

The arbitrary measures that journalists have been subjected to over the past four months contradict the legal protection imposed by the Interim Transitional Constitution in Article 57 of Chapter Fourteen, which states: “1- Every citizen has the unrestricted right to freedom of expression, to receive and publish information and publications, and to access the press, 2- The state guarantees freedom of the press and other media, in accordance with what is determined by law in a democratic, pluralistic society."

It also violated the freedom of the press protected by the Press and Publications Law of 2009, including Article 5 of Chapter One: “The press shall exercise freely and independently in accordance with the constitution and the law, taking into account the public interest and the rights and privacy of others and without prejudice to public morals.”

The de facto authority in Sudan has violated the provisions of Article 25 of the same law by beating and harassing journalists and arbitrarily detaining them.

 "A journalist should have the following rights and immunities:

(a) Not to subject him to any act intended to affect his performance, integrity or commitment to his professional duties.

(b) protect his journalistic sources of information.

(C) With the exception of cases of flagrante delicto, a journalist may not be arrested on any accusation related to the exercise of his journalistic profession, except after notifying the General Union of Sudanese Journalists in writing.

(2) A journalist has the right to obtain information from official sources in accordance with the law.

(3) The Council shall take appropriate measures to guarantee the rights and immunities of the journalist.

(4) It is not permissible to dismiss a journalist except after notifying the General Union of Sudanese Journalists of the reasons for dismissal. If a month has passed and the union failed to reconcile between the newspaper and the journalist, the parties apply to the provisions of the applicable labor law."

According to Sudan’s obligations as a state party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, under Article 19 of the Covenant, there are legal obligations it must abide by, including maintaining freedom of expression and the circulation of information as stated: “Every person has the right to freedom of expression. This right shall be free to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers, either in writing or in print, in the form of art, or through any other media of his choice.”

Moreover, violations of journalists’ rights have clearly violated Sudan’s commitment as a state party to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights. Article 9 of which states: "Everyone has the right to obtain information, and every person has the right to express and disseminate his ideas within the framework of laws and regulations."

In general, the national laws in Sudan do not provide adequate protection for journalists and journalistic work, nor do they constitute a strong legal basis to protect and preserve their rights. They allow the ruling regime to suppress press freedom and punish those who violate existing policies on charges of incitement, spreading rumors, and threatening national security. This includes the provisions of the 1991 Penal Code, which were used to undermine the freedom of the press. Article 50 of the law states: “Whoever commits any act with the intent of undermining the constitutional order of the country or with the intent of endangering its independence or unity, shall be punished by death, life imprisonment, or imprisonment for a period of time with the permissibility of confiscation of all his money." Article 51 also provides: “He shall be deemed to have committed the crime of inciting war against the state and shall be punished with death, life imprisonment, or imprisonment for a lesser period, with all his money may be confiscated from:

(A) provokes a war against the state militarily by gathering or training personnel, or collecting arms or equipment, or initiates or incites the offender to do so, or supports him in any way.”

Article 66 of the same law is used to prosecute journalists on charges of publishing false news according to its criminalization, as follows: “Whoever publishes or broadcasts any news, rumor or report, knowing that it is false, intending to cause fear or panic to the public or a threat to public peace, or undermining the prestige of the state, he shall be punished with imprisonment for a period not exceeding six months or with a fine or with both."

Withdrawing the licenses of some satellite channels and press institutions, such as radio stations and newspapers, by the Ministry of Culture and Information is a violation of the provisions of the Press and Press Publications Law of 2009, which gives this legal authority exclusively to the National Council for Press and Publications. This council is responsible for granting licenses, organizing and supervising the work of offices of foreign agencies and news channel offices licensed in accordance with the law.

In refutation of the de facto authority's position that justifies the violations against journalists and press institutions operating in Sudan on the pretext of protecting national security based on the broad national laws in their texts, and the International Covenant allowing governments to impose certain restrictions on freedom of expression, these restrictions are lawful and necessary (a) to respect the rights or reputations of others; (b) to protect national security, public order, public health, or morals.

According to Johannesburg Principles to make the restriction legitimate and in the interest of national security, the real purpose is to protect the state or its territorial integrity against the use or threat of force, or the state's ability to respond to such a threat of force, whether from an external source, as a military threat, or an internal source, as an incitement to violence to overthrow the regime.

Given the Sudanese situation after the military coup occurrence in October 2021, these conditions are not met. The attacks against journalists and press institutions are from a de-facto military authority produced by a military coup, not a government formed by democratic mechanisms or by national agreement and consensus.

Violations of the rights of journalists and press institutions have taken a punitive form against all those who covered the events that followed the military coup during the popular protests that came out to reject the coup. Cutting off Internet services, restricting the freedom of the press and journalists, and attacking them aimed primarily at blocking human rights violations that the press contributed to documenting.

Recommendations

Given the violations documented in the report concerning the rights of journalists and freedom of the press after the military coup in Sudan on 25 October 2021, Euro-Med Monitor recommends the following:

• Conducting an independent and impartial investigation into all attacks against journalists and press entities, including physical assault, arbitrary detention and storming of press institutions, and bringing those responsible to justice.
• Respecting the right to freedom of expression and freedom of the press and stopping the incitement campaign against journalists and press institutions in Sudan.
• Ensuring full respect for national laws and international standards protecting the rights of journalists, especially the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights ratified by Sudan.
• Immediately releasing all arbitrarily detained journalists, reversing the decision to withdraw licenses from press institutions, stopping the obstruction of their work, returning confiscated tools and devices, and compensating for what was destroyed.
• Conducting comprehensive legislative procedures for the Sudanese national laws and expediting the enactment of a special law to protect journalists.
• Stopping arbitrary control of Internet services and respecting the citizen's right to information.
• Raising violations against journalists before the United Nations human rights expert delegated by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in November 2021, in accordance with United Nations Human Rights Council Resolution S-32/1, to monitor the human rights situation in Sudan since the coup.
• The Sudanese army leadership should retreat from its military coup and call for a comprehensive Sudanese national dialogue involving all political and popular parties.

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