According to news articles, the Sudanese authorities decided to ban journalists from travelling to Darfur States.
The government suggested that a key reason for excluding journalists was that their safety couldn’t be guaranteed.
It is true that journalists are increasingly threatened in conflict zones worldwide, but it is necessary to allow for their access to those areas to reflect the realities as they can contact both parties in the conflict.
Prohibiting the journalists from reporting on the incidents in Darfur States will have its negative impact in reflecting what is going on in the ground, and it represents a golden opportunity for the social media to publish fake information; so it would be wise for the government authorities to give permissions to the journalists and correspondents to enter the tensioned areas in Darfur.
We know that countries have broad powers under international law to organize and restrict journalistic access to information if there are concerns about safety. This is regardless of the impact on free speech.
International human rights law regards the diversity of journalism as critical, because the journalist’s watchdog function is vital to democracy.
It is high time for the concerned authorities to reconsider its decision and allow for the access of journalists to the tensioned areas, instead of accompanying some reporters to cover the events because the reports of those will be considered as government biased.
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