Time and again they proved successful in bringing enough international pressure to bear on repressive authorities bent on denying basic human rights. Allow me to thank you once again for the award.

We, in the Sudan, like all journalists in the world working under undemocratic conditions, have been subjected to all types of harassment. Maintaining media independence, integrity and credibility in the face of repressive laws has always been an uphill battle. During my over half a century of working in this profession I have experienced all types of constraints and harassments, including censorship, confiscation, banning, closure, nationalisation, intimidation and imprisonment.

Nothing kept us going expect commitment to the profession and dedicate loyalty to its ideas. Other colleagues elsewhere in the world suffered even more - they scarified their lives and faced their fate with courage and determination. During the past decade alone, five hundred journalists were murdered in the line of duty, and in most of these cases their murderers enjoyed impunity and were never brought to justice. We owe it to those fallen martyrs to do whatever we can to carry on the battle for freedom of expression to its victorious end and institute full protection to all members of this profession. We are glad that their sacrifices have not been in vain as transition to democracy is on the ascendancy everywhere in the world. It is the time to work with perseverance and commitment to achieve final victory.

You may be aware that Sudan has recently signed a peace accord that brought to an end Africa’s longest civil war that over two decades claimed over two million lives and displaced four million people. We are at the moment negotiating yet another peace agreement, which will hopefully end the tragic armed conflict in the Darfur of Western Sudan. In addition to that we have embarked on a constitutional democratic transformation process. Both local and international media should feel proud of this achievement. Had it not been for its concerted effort to uncover and publicise the facts of this tragic conflict peace could not have been achieved. Resistant and courageous efforts of journalists all over the world exposed and publicised the atrocities of the war and mobilized world public opinion to press for peace.

This underlines the importance of independent and committed journalism. UI cannot help feeling that had the press been free in exposing these atrocities from the beginning of the conflict, peace would have been achieved years back and a lot of tragic miseries could have been avoided. But unfortunately this had not been possible then, because of repressive laws that imposed a curtain of silence which prevented truthful reporting and kept the world ignorant of event until sustained and courageous professional efforts pierced that curtain and exposed the tragedy.

We learn two principles from this lesson:

One - We must demand and acquire full freedom of information to create a really transparent world.

Two - We should work collectively to achieve and protect freedom of expression so that information is made available to all.

We should not be disheartened if we do not immediately achieve full success through our advocacy efforts. The cumulative effect is bond to achieve results sooner or later. We should aspire to reform media legal infrastructure everywhere in the world if we want to achieve sustainable democracy.

But let me take this opportunity to remind you that it is not only be laws that restrict freedom of expression. Lack of professionalism and lack of economic independence are both an impediment to freedom of expression. Good newspapers are produced by professional journalists within a healthy institutional environment. This means you must have highly trained journalists and managers who look after distribution, advertising and technological innovation. We in the developing countries have problems with all those areas. We need capacity building, experience with more developed countries.

Both the World Association of Newspapers and the World Editors Forum have been pioneers in this field. We look forward to see more activity and better mutual cooperation on this front as it is the corner stone in building viable and strong independent media.

Again, good newspapers cost money in addition to good management skills. Unfortunately money is in short supply in developing countries. This is not to say that money cannot be generated locally by a well-managed newspaper. It simply means that in certain cases initial financial support in the form of long term refundable loans is vital.

It should be an easy term loan, preferably interest free and given on the basis of a viability study. This will help independent papers resists attempts to exploit their financial constraints to compromise their independence.

It is encouraging to see the partnership between WAN the Media Development Loan Fund to address this problem. I hope it will prove a successful partnership that addresses this pressing problem which is often ignored. Independent newspapers in emerging transition to democracy badly need much support to face the real challenges inherent in the transition.

I am pleased that these issues are part of the agenda of your present conference and I look forward to seeing a road map emerging from your discussions that will open a window of opportunity for independent media in developing countries. It is bound to be a package deal that doe not only aim at protecting the rights of newspapers and safeguard their freedom but it also works in a positive way to help the media build its professional capacities and safeguard its economic viability and independence.

Let me conclude by making one last remark on media in post conflict countries because this is a problem that faces my country at this transitional period. It is the question of the role of media in a post conflict era. Media’s commitment should be to peace building, but experience has shown that media in post-conflict situations can very well be a double-edged sword. If it dwells on divine issues, rekindle flames of prejudices and if it dwells on advocacy of revenge it will undermine peace. Competing factions and extreme groups supporting this party to the conflict or the other will pose a definite threat to a fragile peace reached with great effort. Nothing could carry us through this sensitive period short of profound professionalism and meticulous neutrality and independence. In this respect we need all the support of all international media professional bodies so that responsible professional freedom is not interpreted to mean open license to endanger the very peace and democracy we are trying to build.

With that I conclude these remarks repeating my heart felt thanks and appreciation for awarded this prize - thank you all.