Concern over detained journalist

The government has detained without charge prominent Sudanese journalist, Alfred Taban, after he attended a news conference by church leaders in Khartoum. Taban tried to attend the news conference following the cancellation of an Easter ceremony on Tuesday April 10. Chairman of the board of Sudan’s main English daily, ‘Khartoum Monitor’, Taban also works for Reuters news agency and the BBC. Neither his family nor his colleagues have heard any news of him since the arrest, the BBC said on Monday. A senior BBC official, Barry Langridge, said the BBC was making “urgent, high-level representations to the Sudanese government” reflecting concern over the arrest and fears that Taban may have been ill-treated.

Taban is being held by the State Security Authority under emergency laws, Nhial Bol, manager of ‘Khartoum Monitor’, told AP. Bol said local journalists had been in contact with officials of the National Press Council, an independent organisation which monitors the media, to lobby the government for Taban’s release. Taban, from the southern Sudanese town of Kajo Kaji, was detained for several months in 1990 for criticising the government of President Umar al-Bashir.