Al-Burhan's meeting with public opinion leaders and the legitimacy of the chairman of the Journalists' Syndicate ✍️ Muhammad Othman Al-Radi
The chairman of the General Union of Sudanese Journalists (whose mandate has legally and juridically expired) today, Saturday, invited journalists to meet with the chairman of the Sovereignty Council, Lieutenant General Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan. This was the first direct meeting with journalists in Sudan since the beginning of the war.
A significant number of journalists from their various written, visual and audio media institutions were keen to respond to the call in order to deliver their direct messages without veil.
In recent days, attention has been focused on Sudanese journalists residing outside Sudan, at the invitation of members of the Sovereignty Council and senior statesmen. This has raised many questions and demands in the Sudanese media community regarding this measure, which some have understood as a clear and frank disregard for journalists who have preferred to live in Sudan despite the war conditions.
Thanks to this meeting, the chairman of the Journalists Union (outgoing, legally and juridically), Al-Sadiq Al-Ruzaiqi was able to return to the spotlight after traveling outside Sudan immediately after the outbreak of the war and completely ignoring the conditions of journalists and without inquiring about them, during his first visit to the city of Port Sudan with the aim of participating in a tribal delegation, of which he is a part, was to meet with the chairman of the Sovereignty Council.
With this move, Al-Ruzaiqi tried to assure the president of the Sovereignty Council that he still controls the journalists and that he has a solid journalistic base through which he can restore the shine, prove the quality and reorganize his newspapers to receive delegations from international countries, Arab and international. African Federation of Journalists, who are scheduled to travel to Sudan in early September.
It seems that the assassination attempt against the chairman of the Sovereignty Council in the city of Jebit during a graduation ceremony for students of the Military College has disrupted the calculations of the security services and prompted them to reconsider the security plans aimed at protecting him. in the sudden change of the meeting place from the Rabwah tourist resort to the hall of the General Intelligence Service in the center of the city, headed by the General Intelligence Service in Port Sudan.
Today's meeting took place amid unprecedented and strict security measures, with precautions including banning journalists from entering the meeting venue without carrying a mobile phone.
The speech of the President of the Journalists Union (outgoing, legally and juridically), Al-Sadiq Al-Ruzaiqi, focused on the concerns and problems of journalists, painting a dark and sad picture of the condition of journalists during the war and the violations and injustices to which they were exposed. He presented a proposal to establish a support fund for journalists under the supervision and care of the President of the Sovereignty Council, through which the concerns and problems of journalists would be addressed.
In his management of the meeting, Al-Ruzaiqi made sure to make available a large number of journalists, focusing on the branches of his union in many states, in addition to the links relevant to his union (whose mandate had expired, legally and juridically).
The Chairman of the Sudanese Journalists Association (newly established), Mohi El-Din Shajar, managed to present a strong and influential plea in which he presented the real problems faced by the journalists displaced to the city of Port Sudan, including accommodation and treatment. His plea was received with great satisfaction by the participants because of their sincere feeling that their problems were addressed in a real manner.
I did not like the way my colleagues spent a lot of time explaining their situation, their poverty and their desire to the President of the Sovereignty Council, forgetting that the Sudanese people as a whole are living this tragedy of displacement, displacement and asylum. It would have been better for them to save face, complain and pray to the Lord of the worlds, and their prayers will certainly be answered if they have sincere intentions in doing so.
The Sudanese people are still paying the price for the war, and perhaps the situation for journalists is better than that of many of those affected by the war, who sleep on the ground and look up at the sky, and perhaps they do. I can't find anything to eat.
By virtue of the profession, it is customary for others to complain to us while we are obliged to reverse the situation, but for us, the community of journalists, resorting to complaint to help us, is a problem!!!
In no case can the head of the Sovereignty Council help all the people and solve their problems with a stroke of the pen. This is extremely difficult, especially since the state budget is spent on war, and no voice is louder than the sound of a gun.
It is extremely difficult to rely on and benefit from state resources in these difficult circumstances, which is why journalistic organizations must consider alternative financial resources, far from the public treasury.
The Chairman of the Sovereignty Council, Lieutenant General Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan, did not clearly and frankly announce the allocation of a specific sum of money to the Journalists Support Fund, while he was giving respectable sums of money to the tribal councils. His speech was a general statement without details, which made it clear to some that he did not want to do so.
The President of the Sovereignty Council hesitated to speak out directly and declare his support, perhaps opening the door for the various federations, associations, associations and unions to be treated in the same way as the Journalists' Union.
There was nothing new in Al-Burhan's speech, but rather he maintained his old and renewed position by adhering to the Jeddah Agreements and not accepting them on the Geneva platform.
Sudanese journalists residing outside Sudan submitted a request to us to hold meetings with us and we accepted that, but you did not submit a request to us for the purpose of meeting us, and now we are ready to meet you at any time and at any moment (and there are a million of them) and this conversation was the proof conversation to confirm to the journalists that it is at the same distance and without discrimination in the middle.
The return of the General Intelligence Service to secure the Sudanese Red Sea coast by securing the Sudanese offshore islands that gangs exploit to spread weapons, drugs and human trafficking will be done through joint coordination with countries sharing common maritime borders. Al-Burhan's response to a question I personally asked as part of a plan to secure the Sudanese maritime coast.
