Sudan Bans UAE Channel for Showing Its Own 'Friends'
Al-Monitor's headline, 'Sudan bans UAE's Sky News Arabia following el-Fasher coverage,' sounds like an authoritarian clampdown on free press. The 'controversy'? Sky News Arabia's journalist was 'seen engaging with an RSF member' weeks after the group captured the city amid 'allegations of massacres and war crimes.' In other words, a journalist filmed the side that *won the battle* and now controls
the area. One might almost call that... reporting. Funny how 'engaging' with one side is a journalistic crime, while repeating talking points from others is just 'news'. This isn't about media ethics; it's about control. The Sudanese government, itself criticized by human rights organizations (Amnesty International, 2024 report), is punishing coverage it doesn't like. The UAE, which owns Sky News
Arabia (joint venture with Sky Group, 2012 launch), has its own complex relationship with various factions in Sudan, and historically, press freedoms are... selective. It appears the only 'truth' allowed is the one that doesn't show the victors as anything other than unspeakably evil (unless, of course, they are 'our' unspeakably evil victors). The audacity of a journalist to point a camera at the
people actually on the ground and document their existence!