The Profession of Hunting for Police Lock-ups!!

Mahjoub Fadl Badri
When someone is absent from their family home for an unusually long time, the family starts looking for them at police lock-ups or in hospital accident and emergency departments, depending on the circumstances and the person’s age.
But if a journalist goes missing from the pages of the press, look for them in the police complaint registers!
Complaints against journalists are not confined to official bodies or individuals aggrieved by what has been published. They now extend to fellow professionals, who file complaints against one another. Thus, colleagues who once drew their bows together in defence of the sanctity of news and freedom of analysis have split into two opposing camps: for and against.
Then came the demise of the printed press, along with the disappearance of the censor’s scissors, which used to arrive just a few hours before publication to cut out anything that displeased the censor. It was a painful irony that the work of an entire army of editors, reporters, and designers, along with the editorial leadership and its secretary, manager, and editor-in-chief, could be wasted in a single, inescapable moment because of the censor’s judgement or personal whim.
Then came the age of electronic journalism, when anyone could write and publish whatever they wanted, however they wanted and whenever they wanted, broadcasting their drivel from a mobile phone screen with nothing to fear except a weak network signal or an exhausted phone credit balance!
To curb social media users’ excesses, the Cybercrime Act was enacted. It contains safeguards intended to protect society from itself, ensuring that people’s reputations are not made a plaything and their privacy is not violated. We have seen complaints filed under various provisions of this law in numerous cases, with sentences ranging from fines to imprisonment.
What is strange, however, is that a senior adviser to His Excellency the Prime Minister should specialise in pursuing well-known journalists through legal complaints. In contrast, others carry on their activities without restraint or deterrence!
And because people tend to follow the example set by their rulers, the matter has now spread among fellow journalists. That is yet another calamity. We pray to God to protect us from discord, guide us to the straight path, and turn the Prime Minister’s attention towards addressing the people’s livelihood concerns. He should stop seeking vindication for his own fleeting self-interest and remember that public office is like the shade at midday: it soon moves on, leaving the person who occupied it exposed to the scorching sun!
When that time comes, people will remember him only for his failings and shortcomings, and no one will say to him, “May God reward you for your efforts!”
Neither we nor the Sudanese living in Egypt, before or since the outbreak of the War of Dignity, have suffered a power cut throughout this entire period. Yet we burn with longing to return to our homeland, despite all its hardships, deteriorating public services, and the threat of complaints from the Prime Minister’s Office under the Cybercrime Act, simply because we have written critically of His Excellency the Prime Minister.
Matters have been made worse still by the attacks carried out by the Dagalo boys’ militia’s drones against electricity infrastructure across the country. These attacks seem to fulfil the “good news” that vulture promised! Hamidti had told his followers that “good tidings are coming”, speaking from the depths of a desolate valley, without security guards or a convoy of four-wheel-drive vehicles. This suggests that he has lost the support of tribesmen who had been deceived by his false promises and empty flashes of hope.
By God’s grace, and through the vigilance of our armed forces, the “flood of drones” will eventually be brought to a halt, however long it takes. But the question remains: when will the Prime Minister’s “flood of complaints” come to an end? And that is even before we ask the more obvious question: when will he leave office?

Shortlink: https://sudanhorizon.com/?p=19579