The Committee to Protect Journalists calls for the release of journalist Rashan Oshi.

^{Journalist Rashan Oshi (her official Facebook page)}

May 24, 2026 (PEN) The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) on Friday called on Sudanese authorities to immediately release journalist Rashan Oshi and to stop using prison to silence journalistic coverage of corruption and public interest issues.

Authorities arrested Oshi, a presenter on the private satellite channel "Al-Balad," in Port Sudan on May 18, after a Sudanese court sentenced her the same day to one year in prison and fined her 10 million Sudanese pounds, or about $16,653, according to news reports.

The court convicted Oshi of defamation under Articles 25 and 26 of the Cybercrime Act, according to a journalist following the case who spoke to the committee on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals.

The journalist added that the charges were brought because of an article Oshi published in 2025 on her Facebook page, which has more than 400,000 followers, in which she spoke about allegations of corruption within Sudanese state institutions.

According to the same source, Oshi claimed in the article that an official covered up the sale of state-owned diplomatic property to a commander in the Rapid Support Forces.

The committee's regional director, Sarah Gaddah, said that "Rashan Oshi's arrest sends a clear message of intimidation to journalists covering corruption in Sudan," calling on the authorities to release her immediately and guarantee journalists' right to work freely without persecution.

The committee noted the escalation in targeting of journalists since last March, when authorities briefly detained both Hajar Suleiman and Mehlenel Al-Mubarak for their coverage of corruption cases.

The committee said that Oshi’s detention comes amid a sharp decline in press freedom in Sudan since the outbreak of war in April 2023 between the army and the Rapid Support Forces, which resulted in the killing of at least 16 journalists and the abduction of 8 others by the Rapid Support Forces.

The committee stated that it had requested a comment from the Sudanese Armed Forces, but had not received a response by the time of publication.