KHARTOUM: As an economic crisis deepens and readers grow more attached to their phones, Sudan’s once vibrant newspaper industry is in decline, with publishers shutting down or reducing their print operations, sellers, editors and union officials said.
Newspapers in the East African country have been battered by years of political censorship and economic hardship. Citizens now mainly get their news online, sometimes from online papers, but also through social media, where rumours and disinformation are rife.
“Print journalism is facing existential challenges,” said Mohamed Abdelaziz, Secretary-General of the Sudanese Journalists Syndicate, a union re-established last year.
Abdelaziz said there was a sharp decline both in the number of papers still publishing, and in the quantity they print, which was down by as much as 90 per cent.
As a result, Abdelaziz said, many print journalists have left the industry or been laid off. Sudan has been in political and economic turmoil for years, witnessing a mass uprising and two coups in the past four years.
Sudanese citizens have seen the value of their currency plummet in recent years as costs for fuel and every day goods skyrocketed amid economic reforms that had aimed to re-open the country’s economy to financing and investment. A coup in October 2021 put a stop to new flows, accelerating the decline. — Reuters
Oman Observer is now on the WhatsApp channel. Click here
