Sudanese journalists protest after editors detained

By Andrew Heavens

KHARTOUM (Reuters) - Sudanese journalists took to the streets of Khartoum on Tuesday, saying security officers had detained two newspaper editors and summoned three others over articles they published about the country's police.

Reporters chanted "free press or no press" as they marched to the offices of Sudan's media regulator, the National Press Council, to hand in a protest petition.

The editors-in-chief of the dailies al-Watan and al-Ahdath were called in for questioning late on Monday and held overnight, journalists told Reuters.

The editors of three other papers were summoned to national security offices in Khartoum on Tuesday morning and were still being questioned in the afternoon, they added.

A source in state security said the editors had not been arrested. "There is no question of release because they are not arrested, just summoned," he told Reuters.

Deputy editor of al-Watan newspaper Adil Sid Ahmed told Reuters all five papers had printed articles on Monday which quoted unnamed sources about changes in the upper levels of the Sudanese police.

Al-Watan's front page story gave details about planned promotions and retirements and a new appointment to head the police customs authority.

Ahmed said the response of authorities was "against the law and against human rights".

"They say the editors are guilty of false reporting, but actually the story was right," said Rehab Taha Mohammed, owner of the al-Wifaq daily. "If there are problems with a story, we can print corrections."

As news of the detentions spread, journalists from Khartoum's private press gathered at al-Watan's office in a room plastered with photocopied portraits of the editors.

More than 50 then marched to the National Press Council.

Journalists said the security services were questioning Sid Ahmed Khalifah of al-Watan; Adil al-Baz of al-Ahdath; Kamal Hassan Bakhiet of al-Rai al-Aam; Mustafa Abu al-Azaim of Akhir Lahzah and Mohamed Sid Ahmed of al-Wifaq.

Freedom of the press was guaranteed in Sudan's 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement, the deal that ended more than two decades of north-south civil war.

But journalists say they are still often put under pressure over sensitive stories and print-runs of papers have been seized.

(Additional reporting by Opheera McDoom; editing by Andrew Roche)