Journalist Faisal Mohamed Salih has been acquitted on Sunday by the Khartoum court of ‘publishing lies’. He wrote a column in which he called for the investigation of the alleged rape of the jailed Girifna-activist Safia Ishag.<\/p>\n
A colleague of Salih confirmed to Radio Dabanga that the National Security filed a criminal complaint against the columnist, alleging he had lied and insulted the state in a 2011 column.<\/p>\n
“I’m happy. It’s a very important precedent,” Salih told AFP after the ruling. He could have been sentenced for up to six months if convicted. The journalist “did not publish lies and did not insult the state”, judge Ismad Suleiman ruled.<\/p>\n
Salih, who heads Teeba Press, teaches journalism, and advocates press freedom, said the verdict should support the “watchdog role” of reporters in Sudan. “It’s very positive for the freedom of the press and the role of the press in society,” he said, noting that the judge described his article as “very objective”.<\/p>\n
Other journalists were previously jailed and fined for writing about the activist’s case. One case against a reporter is still pending, Salih said.<\/p>\n
53-year-old Salih, who won the 2013 Peter Mackler Award for Courageous and Ethical Journalism, came to the defence of Safia Ishaq in 2011. She charged that she was beaten and gang-raped after being dragged off the streets of Khartoum by security agents.<\/p>\n
The Sudanese activists group Girifna started when university students in October 2009 wanted to organise a wide-scale voters\u2019 education for the 2010 elections. In the aftermath of the elections, Girifna, meaning \u201cwe are fed up\u201d, continued to organise actions against ethnic and cultural discrimination and push for regime change and democracy. <\/p>\n
Last year, another court acquitted Salih after security agents charged him following comments he made about President Omar Al Bashir. He had written that it was inappropriate for Al Bashir to call South Sudan’s government “insects”.<\/p>\n
File photo: <\/em>Ambassador Princeton N. Lyman, Lauren Mackler and Faisal Mohamed Salih during the 2013 Peter Mackler Award ceremony (pmaward.org)<\/em><\/p>\n <\/em><\/p>\n