Sudanese authorities seized editions of 13 newspapers after they’d been printed, the North African nation’s largest such confiscation, a press advocacy group said.
The country’s security services didn’t give any reason for the “unprecedented” move, which affected Monday’s editions of publications including al-Sudani, al-Rai al-Aam and al-Intibaha, Journalists for Human Rights, a group based in the capital, Khartoum, said in an e-mailed statement to Bloomberg. Information Minister Ahmed Bilal Osman didn’t answer calls seeking comment.
The confiscations came less than a week after President Omar al-Bashir was cited by state-run news agency SUNA as urging authorities to “remove all obstacles” for the country’s media as the country prepares for national elections in April.
Sudan is ranked 174 out of 180 countries in Reporters Without Borders’ Press Freedom Index for 2015. The Paris-based watchdog’s summary for last year cited seizures of newspaper that didn’t satisfy censors as well as arbitrary detentions of journalists.
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