CAPE TO CAIRO - 18

"Just say you want to go to the Khartoum Monitor", the paper's editor Alfred Taban (below right) told me on the phone "every taxi driver knows where it is." If every taxi driver is familiar with the address of an opposition newspaper, I thought, then surely things can't be that bad. For the Khartoum Monitor, though, that impression would be misleading. Khartoum's English language newspaper owes its fame largely to the fact it has already been banned by the government seven times in the course of its short existence.

Story on government soldiers spreading AIDS
Even now the printing presses are silent. On November 24th 2003, Alfred Taban received yet another call from state security: "Shut it down!" they said. That was their response to a report in the paper about the violent, enforced evacuation of a refugee camp by the army. At that time, the Monitor had just resumed publication after being closed down in mid-October when it had published a report about how government soldiers were spreading AIDS. With a resigned shrug of his shoulders, Taban shows me the last edition that went to press (photo below).

Trying to quash struggle for independence
Taban and his journalists attract the ire of the regime in Khartoum, because they see themselves as the uncensored voice of the southern Sudanese. The northern Sudanese, led by President Bashir, who have been trying to quash the south's struggle for independence for the last two decades, view this as an affront. Looking around the entrance to the Monitor's premises, I see no northerners in traditional Bubu dress sitting on the worn-out sofa, but tall southerners, Dinka and Nuer, easily recognizable from the scars on their faces.

"They want to bleed me dry"
Being summoned for interrogation followed by a few days of house arrest, "Reporters without Borders" lobbying on his behalf, being charged, appealing the sentence, then being set free (often after being fined ) -- this has turned into a familiar ritual for Alfred Taban, who incidentally also works for Reuters and the BBC. This time, though, things did not go so well. When colleagues from fifteen Arabic newspapers paid a him solidarity visit (journalists from government newspapers kept their distance) and the Americans intervened noisily, the Sudanese government stopped talking to him. They want to bleed me dry" say Taban. He has US $7000 in overheads a month - this includes the salaries of a staff of 56. If the printing presses stay silent, no advertising revenue comes in, but he still has to pay his bills. They want to grind him down. He has aleady had to sell his car to pay a fine of US $6000.

Double-edged strategy
The Monitor is not the only victim of press censorship in Sudan. Two popular Arabic newspapers "Watan" and "Al Ayyamn" have been closed down and the Al Jazeera correspondent thrown out of the country. The government is pursuing a double-edged strategy. To the outside world -- and with an eye on the peace talks in Kenya -- the regime hints at the possiblity of a thaw. This applies particularly to the treatment of journalists. The days in which correspondents were kept under constant surveillance are now over. These days the External Information Council is staffed by a cheerful official, who is responsible for the accreditation of journalists and who even hands out visitors' permits for Sudan's troubled oil region.

"Why should the future be any different?"
Within the country, however, the government supresses even the mildest of opposition, with a state of emergency giving the president all the necessary powers. The minister for information can stage an international conference in the morning praising press freedom; in the afternoon he can close down an opposition newspaper. The flow of information from the government about the peace negotiations in Kenya is so meagre that even the pro-government "Sudan Vision" saw fit to call for greater transparency. This double-edged strategy, Alfred Taban believes, does not augur well for peace in Sudan. "We've seen time and again in the past that the government doesn't keep its promises. Why should the future be any different?"

Not able to report on peace talks
In the meantime, he is keeping his newspaper afloat with the help of development aid funds from Norway and the Netherlands. The German embassy also supplied financial assistance but this has been cut off in the meantime, a disappointment for Taban. A far bigger disappointment, though, is that he has been stopped from reporting on the final round of the peace talks. However, given his criticism of the government and its promises, a phone call ordering him to "Shut it down" wouldn't have been long in coming, even if he was allowed to publish!