Journalists associations
There are many organisations that work in the media sector and some of them were created in response to the restrictive environment and to the lack of support to the sector from the governmental institutions. The National Council for Press and Publication (NCPP) was established in 1993 and is considered to be the official regulatory agency for media practice. In some cases, the NCCP in agreement with the government could shut down newspaper for days, but that does not apply to television and radio as they are setup to implement the government policies.
The Sudanese Journalists Union was formed to represent the journalists, build the capacity of its members and advocate for their rights; but some journalists consider the union to be part of the government accusing it of not providing the needed support for the journalists. The union, however, sometimes issues statements urging the government to release arrested journalists and voice objection to laws that block the free press. In an unusual event, the union administration denied its association with the controversial 2016 legislation aimed at enforcing tighter restrictions on online content and ultimately broke its silence and campaigned against the legislation.
The journalists continue to search for the right body to coordinate and support them and one of the more successful initiatives has been the Sudanese Journalists Network (SJN). The network is actively represented and campaigns for journalists rights. In many occasions, it has organised strikes, protests and has issued statements calling for the journalists to be released or permitted to traveling. The network also produces a regular report about freedom and human rights violations across the country, which is used as a source of information about freedom of expression and human rights violations. The network, however, has limited resources and still does not have an official website. It also has led the recent campaign for the release of journalists who were arrested in February 2018.
The Sudanese Journalists Association for Human Rights (JAHR) does not have an official website, but issues statements through different media outlets and also yearly reports about the media situation in Sudan.