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To: IFEX Autolist (other news of interest)
From: World Association of Newspapers (WAN), [email protected] [2]

His Excellency Lieutenant General Omar Hassan al-Bashir
President of the Republic of Sudan
C/o Permanent Representative to UN
Email : [email protected] [3]

4 December 2003

Your Excellency,

We are writing on behalf of the World Association of Newspapers and the
World Editors Forum, which represent 18,000 publications in 100 countries,
to express our serious concern at the banning of the Khartoum Monitor for
the seventh time this year.

According to reports, on 24 November the Khartoum Monitor, Sudan's only
English-language daily, was suspended for the seventh time this year under
Article 130 (paragraphs 1 and 2) of the 1991 Code of Criminal Procedure. It
had recently published articles about slavery and had questioned the
independence of the country's judiciary and national peace accords that are
currently being negotiated. The Khartoum Monitor has now been suspended for
a total of more than six months this year.

The latest suspension is part of an ongoing crackdown against the press. The
current suspension of the Khartoum Monitor is the second time it has been
banned since September. During the same period, the government has also
temporarily suspended the newspapers Alwan, Al-Azminah and Al-Ayyam.

We respectfully remind you that in August you said that press censorship
would be lifted. This statement was confirmed by your country's Permanent
Mission to the United Nations in Geneva, which stated that newspapers would
never again be censored.

We remind you that the suspension of the Khartoum Monitor constitutes a
clear breach of the right to freedom of expression, which is guaranteed by
numerous international agreements, including the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights. Article 19 of the Declaration states: 'Everyone has the right
to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes the freedom to
hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart
information and ideas through any media, regardless of frontiers.'

We respectfully call on you to ensure that the suspension of the Khartoum
Monitor is immediately lifted and that it and all other newspapers are
permitted to publish without state interference. We urge you to ensure that
in future your government fully respects international standards of press
freedom.

We look forward to hearing from you at your earliest convenience.

Yours sincerely,

Seok Hyun Hong
President
World Association of Newspapers

Gloria Brown Anderson
President
World Editors Forum

cc : Mr Kofi Annan, Secretary-General, United Nations
Mr Koichiro Matsuura, Director-General, UNESCO

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of WAN**