KHARTOUM: Sudanese journalists have formed the country’s first independent professional union for decades, in what campaigners said was an important step toward re-establishing freedoms after a military coup.
“The victory is to regain our syndicate after more than 30 years in order to defend the freedom and professionalism of the press,” said one journalist Waleed Alnour, who waited hours in the sun to cast his vote in an election for the union’s leadership on Sunday.
The union has an 1,164 members, 659 of whom took part in Sunday’s vote.
Shadow unions that sprang up in opposition to autocrat Omar Al-Bashir, who packed unions with regime-friendly members, were instrumental in an uprising that toppled him in 2019.
A military coup last October ended a power-sharing arrangement with civilians that followed the uprising.
The coup also led to the suspension of a radio station, and some TV journalists were subject to attacks, raids or arrests that they blamed on security forces and loyalists of the former regime.
Journalists aligned with Bashir had attempted to prevent Sunday’s vote going ahead by raising an ongoing legal complaint, saying the syndicate could not replace the pre-existing Bashir-era union.
However, election committee head Faisal Mohamed Salih, who served as information minister in a civilian-led government between the uprising and the coup, said the vote “was executed in a completely democratic way... smoothly and with a high turnout and excitement among the journalists.”
Civil society observers, including some from opposition lawyers’ groups, attended the election.
Abdelmoniem Abu Idrees, a journalist working for international news agency Agence France-Presse (AFP), was voted head of the syndicate. Votes were being counted for the rest of the union’s 40-person leadership.
The Bahri resistance committees, one of the groups leading ongoing protests against military rule, said in a statement the election was an important step.
“We can only support it, as it lays the groundwork for one of our uprising’s core demands, and that is democracy.”
Sudanese journalists form independent union to defend freedoms
https://arab.news/25bg9
Sudanese journalists form independent union to defend freedoms
- The syndicate is the first independent professional union for decades and represents and important step toward press freedom in the country
BBC slammed for ‘shameful’ cut to ‘free Palestine’ comment at BAFTA Awards
- Broadcaster removes from broadcast part of filmmaker Akinola Davies Jr.’s acceptance speech at the British Academy Film Awards
- Amnesty UK praises filmmaker for speaking up for those ‘facing and fleeing from persecution and mass atrocities’
LONDON: The BBC was accused on Monday of a “shameful” decision after it cut part of an acceptance speech at the previous night’s British Academy Film Awards in which a filmmaker uttered the phrase “free Palestine.”
British-Nigerian director and co-writer Akinola Davies Jr. and his brother, co-writer Wale Davies were collecting the award for outstanding debut by a British writer, director or producer for their film “My Father’s Shadow” when the former made the comment.
The BBC chose not to include the final part of his speech when it broadcast the BAFTAs ceremony later in the evening. However, the corporation did broadcast an inadvertent racist slur shouted by a person with Tourette syndrome while Black actors Michael B. Jordan and Delroy Lindo were presenting an award.
Akinola thanked industry figures and family for their support as he accepted the award, before dedicating it to “all those whose parents migrated to obtain a better life for their children.”
In the final part of his speech, cut by the BBC, he said: “To the economic migrant, the conflict migrant, those under occupation, dictatorship, persecution and those experiencing genocide, you matter and your stories matter more than ever.
“Your dreams are an act of resistance. To those watching at home, archive your loved ones, archive your stories yesterday, today and forever. For Nigeria, for London, Congo, Sudan, free Palestine. Thank you.”
The BBC, which broadcast the ceremony with a two-hour time delay, said the cut was made for timing reasons.
A spokesperson told Deadline: “The live event is three hours, and it has to be reduced to two hours for its on-air slot. The same happened to other speeches made during the night, and all edits were made to ensure the program was delivered to time. All winners’ speeches will be available to watch via BAFTA’s YouTube Channel.”
Human rights campaign group Amnesty UK described the decision by the BBC to cut part of the speech as “shameful.”
It added: “Thank you Akinola Davies Jr. for using your platform to speak out for the rights of migrants and people facing and fleeing from persecution and mass atrocities, from the Congo to Sudan to Palestine.”
In June last year, the BBC was at the center of a row after it broadcast a Glastonbury Festival performance by the duo Bob Vylan, during which the lead singer chanted “death to the IDF” in protest against the Israeli Defense Forces’ assault on Gaza.
