Sudanese authorities deport journalist for protest coverage

Egyptian journalist, Salma al-Wardany A correspondent for international news wire Bloomberg was deported by Sudanese authorities on Tuesday, after being detained while trying to cover the country’s widening protest movement. “They ordered me to leave,” a weeping Salma al-Wardany, an Egyptian, told AFP by telephone as she awaited a flight from the Khartoum airport.
Her phone was later switched off and a friend told AFP she had left.
Earlier on Tuesday, Britain expressed concern at increasing restrictions on freedom of expression in Sudan following the recent demonstrations.
Wardany’s expulsion order came after she said she was held by Sudanese state security agents for five hours on Thursday at the University of Khartoum.
For almost two weeks, demonstrators in groups of 100 or 200 have burned tyres and blocked roads in a growing call for regime change which has been inevitably met by police tear gas.
Wardany told AFP she was informed of the immediate expulsion order when she tried to renew her Sudanese residency permit earlier on Tuesday.
Her sister Lina wrote on Twitter that she was escorted by police to Khartoum airport to board a plane back to her country.
After her release without charges last week, Wardany said security agents barred her from working as a journalist unless the country’s press council decided otherwise.
In the airport parking lot, weeping friends said they had spoken with her by telephone as she waited inside the terminal.
“She packed in a rush,” said Maha al-Sanosi, who was detained along with Wardany last week.
Wardany was with an Egyptian embassy official and several state security agents in the terminal, Sanosi said, praising the reporter’s work.
“I’ve never seen someone as dedicated as she is,” Sanosi said.
“She gave us a voice,” another friend said.