Sudan to liberalize press laws

Sudanese President Omar El-Bashir is to issue a temporary decree regarding the law regulating the press for 1998, which are in compliance with the new Sudanese constitution to allow political multiplicity as of the beginning of the coming year.

A joint committee between the committees of culture and information set up the draft law, as newspapers are currently subjected to the 1996 press law, which allows newspapers to be issued in the form of public-share companies, forbids individual ownership of newspapers and specifies a minimum capital of any press company to be 50 million Sudanese pounds.