Sudan blocks distribution of largest daily

KHARTOUM: Sudan's state security agency on Monday [4 June 2012] blocked distribution of the country's largest-circulation newspaper, which has criticised talks between Sudan and South Sudan, the newspaper's boss said.

Al Intibaha, a hardline anti-South daily which supported South Sudan's separation last July, has been a regular critic of negotiations between the two countries.

Talks mediated by the African Union resumed in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa last week for the first time since fighting along the disputed border in April.

"After our newspaper was printed, a state security officer came and said we could not distribute it because of an article I wrote criticising the political situation," chairman of the board Al Tayeb Mustafa said.

Confiscating newspapers after printing is a common tactic used by Sudan's security service, journalists and press freedom activists say.

They say journalists have also been banned from writing and some newspapers have been ordered to suspend publication under a worsening government attack on critical voices over the past year, as tensions with South Sudan escalated.