Sudanese citizen journalist Usamah Mohamad has entered on Friday his third week of detention.
Mohamad was reportedly arrested by National Intelligence Security Service officers two weeks ago in Khartoum while he was covering the protests. Usamah Mohamad was detained along with @Arch_Asaad, a Sudanese architect, who was released shortly after.
On the day of his arrest, the Sudanese activist had recorded a video for Al Jazeera's The Stream in which he explained why he intended to participate in the protests planned for June 30.
On June 16, Sudanese students took to the streets of Khartoum after President Omar Al-Bashir announced a series of austerity measures aimed at reducing the government $2,4bn budget deficit. The movement gained momentum as the days passed, transcending mere student activism to include calls for an end to the 23-year-old regime of Bashir.
Although the protests have been relatively small scale, Sudanese police have responded with a swift crackdown, detaining activists and journalists and breaking up rallies with tear gas.
Since the protests started three weeks ago hundreds of protesters have been arrested. Last Friday approximately 1,000 people were arrested and hundreds hurt as police forces used batons and fired tear gas to disperse protesters.
Catherine Ashton, the European Union foreign policy chief, expressed on Saturday concern at "growing levels of censorship and restrictions on the media and the political opposition in Sudan, including the detention of a number of journalists and political activists".
Detained Egyptian journalist Shaimaa Adel was released on Wednesday after she was arrested in the Sudanese capital last Tuesday while covering the protests.
Last Friday, security forces raided the bureau of the AFP news agency in Khartoum and detained a freelance photographer after he arrived with pictures. He was released after almost 24 hours.
Bloomberg correspondent Salma el-Wardany was deported last week after also being detained while trying to cover the country's protest movement.
Tourism Minister Hassabo Abdel-Rahman and member of Sudan's ruling National Congress Party (NCP) said on Thursday that recent protests could not be compared to the uprisings in the Middle East.
“There is no Arab Spring in Sudan,” he said, during a visit in Cairo. Abdel-Rahman also accused the media of blowing the protests out of proportion and justified the arrests of Egyptian journalists saying that they did not have permit and participated in the protests.
