As the economic crisis intensifies and consumers grow more reliant on their cellphones, Sudan’s once-thriving newspaper sector is in decline. Publishers are shutting or downsizing printing facilities, Reuters told merchants, publishers, and the activist union.
East African publications were ruined by political restrictions and economic hardship. Nowadays, most people get their information via the Internet, sometimes from online newspapers . Other times from social media, where rumors and lies spread.
“Print journalism faces existential challenges,” said Mohamed Abdelaziz, general secretary of the Sudan Journalists’ Union, reactivated last year.
Abdelaziz said that 90% fewer newspapers were printed.
According to Abdelaziz, many print journalists have departed or been fired.
Sudan has seen a major insurrection and two coups in the last four years.
Sudan’s dinar has collapsed as the price of gas and essential consumer goods has risen. This is due to economic changes to reopen the country’s economy to financial and commercial investment.
The October 2021 coup stopped new flows and accelerated their decline. Sudanese newspapers cost 300 Sudanese pounds ($0.53), compared to the vast amount of free news and information online.
“I am for print journalism and I hope it doesn’t perish because our society needs the credibility it brings,” said Youssef Hamad, editor of Al-Hadatha, a weekly that is now online for political and economic reasons. Hamad said newspaper readership outside Khartoum is decreasing.
One of the few print media buyers, Abdel Qader Himmat, claimed newspapers are more important since they can be physically received.
“Any article (online) may be removed, but print journalism is the backbone of history and knowledge,” he told a Khartoum bookseller.
($1=565.0502 Sudanese pounds)
