Sudan's media laws frustrate drives on AIDS and genital mutilation

A growing clampdown on the press is affecting public health campaigns in Sudan, just as a breakdown in peace talks dashed hopes of ending one of the world's most intractable civil wars.

On 11 September the campaigning group Human Rights Watch wrote to President Omar al Bashir, condemning the recent crackdown. The group said, “In the past week, following the government's withdrawal from peace talks in Nairobi with rebel forces, the governmental National Press Council has confiscated newspapers for publishing allegedly subversive articles and security forces have detained, harassed, and interrogated newspaper editors and journalists.”

“Subversion” includes criticism of the breakdown of the peace talks—“threatening the unity of the state”—and discussing female …