IFEX - News from the international freedom of expression community
_______________________________________________________________

PRESS RELEASE/ALERT - SUDAN

12 January 2005

Media will be decisive factor in post-conflict era, says ARTICLE 19 report

SOURCE: ARTICLE 19, London

(ARTICLE 19/IFEX) - The following is an ARTICLE 19 press release:

SUDAN: Media will be Decisive Factor in Post-Conflict Era

ARTICLE 19 today releases a report on "The Legal Framework for Freedom of
Expression in Sudan"

The final peace agreement, ending Sudan's civil war was signed on 9 January
2005.

The media will be a decisive factor in the post-conflict era. It can take on
a strong, supportive role vis-à-vis the peace process; helping to inform the
public of the peace agreement and its implications, facilitate public
participation and reconciliation and help diffuse the many threats to the
peace process through professional media activity. On the other hand, it can
fail to do this, cater for divisive elements within the main warring camps,
fuel remaining tensions and further deepen dangerous divisions within Sudan.

In the short term, the existing media and the media community will be
crucial for communicating the peace accords to the Sudanese population in a
credible and inclusive way. This in itself will be a huge task, given the
territorial vastness, lack of infrastructure, the linguistic diversity and
the lack of credibility within some groups of the only national broadcaster,
the Sudan Radio and Television Corporation.

The issue of freedom of expression and media law - who has access to the
airwaves, who may publish what, where and when - also represent potentially
serious controversy within the context of the internal conflicts in Sudan.
Experience from other war-torn societies indicate that when the guns are no
longer the preferred or accepted option for conflict resolution, the media
often become a seriously contested means of control and power and therefore
a potential new source of conflict. This issue is not presently dealt with
in any meaningful way in the Sudan.

The ARTICLE 19 report identifies a number of Key Recommendations to ensure
that a free, independent and pluralistic media can develop in Sudan.

Constitutional Provisions
- The locus of responsibility for media regulation under the Power Sharing
Protocol of 2004 should be clarified as a matter of urgency.
- The state of emergency should be lifted immediately. At a very minimum,
restrictions on freedom of expression imposed by regulations adopted
pursuant to the current state of emergency should be repealed.

The Press Act
- The Press Act 2004 should be repealed. Consideration should be given to
leaving the media and journalists free to regulate themselves.
- If a new Press Act is adopted, it should differ from the present law in
the following key regards:
. Any press council or other regulatory body should be fully independent of
government and should be granted only limited regulatory powers, analogous
to those that would be wielded by a self-regulatory body.
. There should be no licensing of media outlets and any registration system
should be limited in scope to technical registration, automatic upon the
provision of limited information.
. The law should not impose any restrictions on the content of what may be
published or broadcast over and above restrictions found in laws of general
application.
. There should be no licensing or registration of individual journalists.

Broadcasting
- A broadcasting law should be adopted with a view to establishing an
independent system for the regulation of broadcasting. The law should, among
other things:
. establish an independent broadcast regulator, protected against government
or commercial interference by, inter alia, explicit guarantees of
independence, the appointments process for members, rules on conflict of
interest (commercial and political) and adequate and protected sources of
funding;
. grant the independent regulator the power to award licenses, along with
appropriate frequencies, and to develop and enforce a code of conduct for
broadcasters;
. provide for a fair and transparent system for the allocation of
broadcasting licences; and
. provide for the development, in a consultative manner, of a code of
conduct for broadcasters, as well as the implementation of that code,
including through a regime of graduated sanctions for breach.

Access to Information Legislation
- Comprehensive legislation providing for the right to access information
held by public bodies should be adopted as a matter of urgency.
- Such legislation should, among other things:
. establish a presumption in favour of disclosure of all information held by
public bodies, subject only to the regime of exceptions;
. place an obligation on public bodies to publish proactively a wide range
of information about their activities and the information they hold;
. provide for clear and transparent procedures for the processing of
requests for information;
. set out clearly and narrowly the exceptions to the right of access, based
on the idea that access may only be refused where disclosure poses a risk of
harm to a legitimate protected interest and the overall public good is
served by secrecy; and
. allocate the power to hear appeals from any refusal to provide access to
information to an independent body.
- Secrecy laws should be reviewed and amended as necessary to bring them
into line with international standards in this area, as well as the new
access to information legislation.

Other Content Restrictions
- The rules relating to defamation should be completely revised to bring
them into line with international standards. In particular:
. defamation should be decriminalised;
. truth should be a complete defence to a charge of defamation;
. defendants should benefit from a defence of reasonable publication;
. public officials should not receive special protection against defamation;
and
. sanctions should be strictly proportionate to the harm caused.
- Other laws imposing restrictions on freedom of expression - including the
Criminal Act and the National Security Forces Act - should be reviewed and
amended as necessary to bring them into line with international and
constitutional standards.

For further information, contact John Barker, Africa Programme Director,
ARTICLE 19, 6/8 Amwell Street, London, EC1R 1UQ, U.K., tel: +44 20 7278
9292, fax: +44 20 7278 7660, direct line: +44 20 7239 1189, e-mail:
[email protected], [email protected], Internet: http://www.article19.org

The information contained in this press release/alert is the sole
responsibility of ARTICLE 19. In citing this material for broadcast or
publication, please credit ARTICLE 19.
_______________________________________________________________
DISTRIBUTED BY THE INTERNATIONAL FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION
EXCHANGE (IFEX) CLEARING HOUSE
489 College Street, Suite 403, Toronto (ON) M6G 1A5 CANADA
tel: +1 416 515 9622 fax: +1 416 515 7879
alerts e-mail: [email protected] general e-mail: [email protected]
Internet site: http://www.ifex.org/