"Based on qualitative and quantitative research conducted between May and August 2025, including interviews with journalists, media organisations, policymakers, and civil society activists, the report highlights how Sudan’s media environment has transformed into a “parallel battlefield” where
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information warfare runs alongside physical conflict. Key findings include:
- Collapse of traditional media: Print, radio, and television outlets have been decimated or repurposed as propaganda tools, with hundreds of journalists displaced or exiled.
- Rise of digital platforms: In the absence of reliable news, Sudanese citizens increasingly rely on social media, particularly Facebook, WhatsApp, and TikTok, for information, often encountering misinformation and hate speech.
- Weaponisation of media: Both the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have systematically targeted independent journalism, using harassment, detention, and surveillance to suppress dissent.
- Exclusion and fragmentation: Marginalised groups face significant barriers to accessing information, exacerbated by poor connectivity and digital divides.
- Emerging resilience: Despite the challenges, exiled media initiatives are working to counter hate speech and uphold professional standards, though sustainability remains a major concern.
The report calls for urgent international support across four key areas: protection of journalists, capacity building, institutional strengthening, and independent funding. Without immediate intervention, Sudan risks losing an entire generation of media professionals and the infrastructure essential for democratic recovery and peacebuilding." (https://internews.org)
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"What does it mean to decolonise academia in Africa? Is this important project limited to the humanities? Is it a project for the future? Are there forerunners at African universities today? The contributors to this volume show different trajectories for anthropology as a discipline and for decoloni
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sing academia across the continent and beyond. They offer a variety of perspectives, especially regarding collaboration between African and German scholars in the areas of research, teaching and institutional development: While some are hopeful and take inspiration from earlier experiences of disciplinary and methodological developments in academic decolonisation and international collaborations, others remain critical and call for more radical attempts at decolonisation." (Publisher description)
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"All over the world, satirists courageously stand up for democratic values, often under extremely difficult conditions. Through their art, they create spaces for freedom and challenge authorities. On the other hand, extremists use humour for their political purposes too: They ridicule those who diss
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ent and make fun of democratic values. It is not helpful that political debates are increasingly taking place in digital spaces that lack transparency and fair rules." (Publisher description)
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"Sections of the book engage in critical reflection on what peacebuilding effectiveness is and who gets to decide, provide practical examples and case studies of the successes and failures of assessing peacebuilding work, and support innovative strategies and tools to move the field forward. Chapter
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s reflect a variety of perspectives on peacebuilding effectiveness and methods—quantitative, qualitative, and participatory—to evaluate peacebuilding efforts, with particular attention to approaches that center those local to the peacebuilding process. Practitioners and policymakers alike will find useful arguments and approaches for evaluating peacebuilding activities and making the case for funding such efforts." (Publisher description)
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"This book is the first of its kind within the African region to combine scholarly perspectives from the fields of Strategic Communication Management and Communication for Development and Social Change. It draws insights from scholars across the African continent by unravelling the complementary nat
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ure of scholarship between the two fields, through the lens of prevailing governance and sustainability challenges facing African countries, today. This edited volume covers issues that have adversely affected the achievement of goals related to humanitarian upliftment, development and social change for all African nations. Consequently, citizen participation, which lies at the heart of these challenges when considering the question of sustainable governance and policy development for social change in an African context is addressed. To this end, a reflection is also made on various case studies that exist where local citizens do not inform sustainable development programmes, while the promotion of bottom-up development and social change is largely replaced by top-down instrumental action approaches and hemispheric communication instead of strategic communication." (Publisher description)
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"Despite the strides made towards strengthening two-way communication and dialogue in the regional response to the Sudan crisis, there remain critical gaps inhibiting the effectiveness of collective efforts. The Humanitarian Response Plan (HRP) and the Regional Refugee Response Plan should allocate
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time, priority and resources to communication and engagement approaches which ensure investment in key communication, community engagement and accountability (CCEA) activities. This should include integrated CCEA activities in sectoral interventions and those led by local and diaspora humanitarian action. The information and engagement ecosystem is in constant flux in Sudan and neighbouring countries and maintaining a solid communications base requires a range of skills and analysis. As a priority for protection, forward planning must consider the skills needed." Key takeaways)
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"Seeking to expand the Western-centric scope of media literacy research, this article shines the spotlight on Sudan as a critically underexplored context. Using participatory mapping and in-depth interviews, our research foregrounds urban Sudanese youths’ everyday informational resources and pract
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ices as a necessary foundation for a culturally responsive approach to media literacy education. We find that young people’s information landscapes are heavily molded by the country’s political context: Sudan’s political instability and economic precarity increase the urgency and speed of information exchanges, while the prevalence of propaganda highlights the need for authentic, trustworthy information. This focus on usefulness and authenticity consequently shapes a preference for interpersonal communication and digital spaces as key informational channels. At the same time, our analysis reveals significant differences in young people’s information landscapes, particularly along gender lines. Based on these findings, we outline key implications for culturally responsive media literacy interventions." (Abstract)
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"We find that there is a will for reform from the civilian part of the government, the international community, independent media professionals, and a handful of Sudanese CSOs. However, pushing for a free media is a low priority for most of the population, who have more urgent survival and security
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needs. Furthermore, the military/Islamist wing of the transitional government seems to want to control, not free, the media." (Conclusion, page 24)
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"This qualitative study report primarily details the reactions of local audiences in Lebanon, Iraq, and Sudan and their perception of media content produced by journalist trained by ENQUIRE (Enhancing Quality Information on Religious Freedoms). The content is compared with that of more traditional,
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local media, in order to assess the professional development of the trained journalists and better identify potential areas of improvement in terms of appealing to the audience and gaining traction and influence. It also adds another dimension, as it seeks to understand how these audiences, coming from different genders, ages as well as religions, consume and trust (or distrust) media content in general. Understanding their perceptions and opinions would allow for the production of more engaging and thought-provoking content in the future, while sparking conversations related to religious minorities. In that respect, although each country has its own set of individual findings, several common trends emerge. The online realm, namely Facebook and WhatsApp, dominates the audience’s media consumption patterns and is often the first resort due to its ease of access and its capacity to make users feel in control of what they consume. This presents its own set of risks and must be appropriately addressed in future endeavors. Regardless, it is too soon to completely discount offline media especially with the ever-present TV stations that manage to reach and influence a significant portion of the population, according to the participants. Despite the difficulty to precisely define it, trust remains an element that manages to greatly shape media consumption patterns. As for the ENQUIRE-trained journalists, their content enjoyed a mixed reception. On the one hand, it often proved to be highly educational and thought-provoking, which is one of the goals of this project. On the other hand, there were times where it was perceived as inflammatory and could not be told apart from typical media outlets’ production, which many participants often avoid." (Executive summary)
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"An international line-up of authors first discuss communication practices, strategies, and media uses by NGOs, providing insights into the specifics of NGO programs for social change goals and reveal particular sets of tactics NGOs commonly employ. The book then presents a set of case studies of NG
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O organizing from all over the world—ranging from Sudan via Brazil to China – to illustrate the particular contexts that make NGO advocacy necessary, while also highlighting successful initiatives to illuminate the important spaces NGOs occupy in civil society." (Publisher description)
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"This briefing document provides an overview of key developments in digital authoritarianism in 11 countries and explains the theoretical framework and methodology behind The Unfreedom Monitor project. The document also provides a basis for expanding this research to other countries to deepen our un
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derstanding of digital authoritarianism globally, as well as its crucial implications for the future. The preliminary sample of 11 countries was chosen to reflect a range of factors: system of government, approach to human rights (including rankings in indexes), and corporate relations. The countries are: Brazil, Ecuador, Egypt, India, Morocco, Myanmar, Russia, Sudan, Tanzania, Turkey, and Zimbabwe." (Publisher description)
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"This report shares findings on the access and use of mobile technology among South Sudanese refugees and the communities that host them in three areas of White Nile, Sudan. White Nile is a state in southern Sudan sharing a border and refugee crossing points with South Sudan. It is home to nearly 70
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0,000 people in need of humanitarian assistance. More than 280,000 refugees from South Sudan are currently hosted in White Nile and represent more than a third of all refugees living in Sudan, as well as roughly 100,000 returnees who arrived from South Sudan when it seceded in 2011. Most refugees live in one of nine official refugee camps. Additionally, there are nearly 400,000 people experiencing acute food insecurity [...] Our research indicates that access to mobile phones is high in both communities, with 91 per cent of respondents reporting that their household owns at least one handset. Personal ownership is also high, with 81 per cent of refugees and 62 per cent of host community members reporting that they own their own mobile phone. This figure obscures some important discrepancies, however. For example, refugees are more likely to own an internet-enabled handset than host community members, and women, persons with disabilities and older people are less likely to have access to mobile phones." (Executive summary, page 2)
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"There is a clear digital divide in Sudan as the number of internet users is a very low part of the population. Despite the high contribution of the telecommunication field to the GDP, the Sudanese authorities are not using this contribution to enhance and develop the ICT field to fill the gap of di
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gital illiteracy. Instead, they use taxpayer money to buy expensive equipment for censorship, without publishing these deals. Restricting the freedom of expression and using the state’s violence to repress fundamental rights and civil liberties are rooting the image of the authoritarian state in the minds of the citizens which may lead to a state of lack of rights awareness. Using and amending laws to protect the government interests indicates that the government will enact other laws to restrict the digital space in order to make access to information increasingly difficult. Government access to ICT infrastructure in Sudan will suppress net neutrality during political crises, affecting people economically and socially, specifically in relation to education and small businesses. Sudan has low transparency, frequently violates physical privacy, uses unlawful communication shutdowns, an idle access to information act, no freedom of expression, vague laws, and online surveillance, making it easy to say that digital authoritarianism is rooted in Sudan. Digital authoritarianism affects opportunities for foreign investment, stability of life, and social security." (Analysis and conclusion, page 21)
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"Sudan’s transitional authorities expressed a strong political commitment to reform laws and policies relative to freedom of expression, media freedom and access to information. This was notably demonstrated by the suspension of old laws limiting freedom of expression, as well as by the signing of
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the Media Freedom Coalition’s Global Pledge to Defend Media Freedom by Sudanese Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok in September 2019 within the margins of the United Nations General Assembly. He declared on this occasion that “never again in the new Sudan will a journalist be repressed or jailed”. Sudan also signed the Hague Commitment to Increase the Safety of Journalists in 2020. Sudan’s transitional authorities requested UNESCO’s support in this reform endeavour, an opportunity that the Organization seized through its Khartoum Office with funding from the MDP. An agreement was subsequently signed with Sudan’s Ministry of Culture and Information to launch a project with two components. The first component was to conduct an analysis of existing media laws and to develop a roadmap to address legislative reform, institution building, investment in technical infrastructure along with training and employment of media professionals. The second was to strengthen the capacities of Sudanese journalists in countering disinformation and preventing violent extremism and hate speech. The British Embassy in Khartoum then joined the project, and a joint committee representing all three parties war formed. UNESCO thus set in motion in late 2019 a series of high-level meetings with the aim of building coalitions to support future reforms and of advising Sudanese authorities on this process." (Pages 1-2)
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"The stories presented here are some examples of how the Multi-Donor Programme for Freedom of Expression and Safety of Journalists (MDP) works to provide countries and their populations with the necessary tools to nurture a free and independent media. This includes promoting the adoption of policies
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and standards on freedom of expression and safety of journalists, and fostering diversity, gender equality and media and information literacy through and with the media." (https://en.unesco.org/themes/fostering-freedom-expression/mdp/stories)
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