By Enyichukwu Enemanna
Journalists in Sudan for the first time in decades have come together to form a formidable syndicate which they said will strengthen the freedom of the press.
This follows a military coup last October that led to the suspension of a radio station, while some TV journalists were subject to attacks, raids or arrests by security forces and loyalists of the former regime of Omar al-Bashir,
About 659 out of 1,164 members of the union had on Sunday participated in an election to elect the new leadership of the union.
One of the journalists, Waleed Alnour, who waited hours in the sun to cast his vote on Sunday said, “The victory is to regain our syndicate after more than 30 years in order to defend the freedom and professionalism of the press.”
The coup also ended a power-sharing arrangement with civilians.
The then autocratic leadership of Omar al-Bashir, had populated shadow unions with members who were supportive of his regime. They were later instrumental in an uprising that toppled him in 2019.
Journalists loyal to 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. Other 40 positions were also voted for.
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”.
